Wow, what a plenitude of posts to savour!
JW411, much thanks for the link which produces a veritable feast of Hastings photos and videos! Most relevant to current discussion is one clearly showing a beam hanging jeep and gun combo. The jeep facing backwards (presumably so that the heavy engine pitches it downwards on release) with a gun behind which seems to have a vane attached to the trail (as a rudder to prevent it rotating on release to spear the fuselage?). Oddly a para stick is already exiting the aircraft. Was it not SOP to drop heavy loads first and then the troops and not vice versa to prevent being hit by the former (especially in the case of a maldrop? Perhaps the vehicles were going to an alternative DZ?
So, another 5% man. Isn't there a tie (obvious motif, flaming balls!) for you chaps? Sounds as though you all have a good case to sue the Faraday estate, I'd say.
Ormeside, thanks for your Hastings memories also. It sounds as though the position and/or the length of the beam could be adjusted to accommodate the load in question? It also seems that Jeeps with or without trailers featured more in the Para wish list than guns. I seem to remember that the lack of vehicles at Arnhem together with the distance of the DZs from the bridge posed great tactical problems in seizing the latter and holding it (yes, the odd SS battalion and fog in the UK didn't help, I'll grant).
I've seen a pic of the Greenland Hastie before. Fate moves in mysterious ways her wonders to perform does she not? Having said that all survived unscathed I think. Free dropping from 50' tricky enough. Over ice and snow in a whiteout? Not a good idea!
I fully support Danny and Geriaviator's calls to arms. If you look in the bottom of your tankard you should see one of Her Majesty's shillings!
Danny, blood chits were one RAF tradition that spanned the decades. I was glad to sign one to be allowed a ride in the BBMF Lanc's rear turret. I was now a civvie but Jacko allowed me on board for the 20mins flight of a lifetime!
Speaking of the BBMF, I seem to remember a few years ago an interview with a later BBMF O i/c explaining the help he had received from a visiting veteran Lanc pilot. Having heard the trouble they were having trying to three point theirs in cross-winds he was told, "We never did a three pointer in a x-wind, but wheeled it on and only lowered the tail as rudder control was lost". I could have told them that! I don't know if they were just being polite, but a lot of such info that is passed on verbally from instructors to trainees tends to be the first thing lost.