1974/75 Bedford KM Balloon Tether Vehicle 64AW83 used at a Territorial Army camp for parachute training. (Bill Reid)

The photo was taken in the late 1980s at the former Junior Leaders training camp at Dundonald, Ayrshire. By the time of the photo the camp had generally been dismantled, but the MoD had retained the camp and it was used from time to time for TA training.

Gordon McLaughlin ... These balloon winch vehicles were part of a RAF unit that toured the country each year to give parachute practice to TA Airborne units. They would typically bring two or three winch vehicles, a few hydrogen lorries that carried hydrogen cylinders for filling the balloon, a 4-wheeled flat trailer to carry the balloon gondola and one or two support vehicles. I saw and photographed them several times in Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1970s and 1980s.

They based themselves at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle where the vehicles were parked overnight and a detachment would go to the Town Moor (a large open space on the edge of the city) every day. The balloon was inflated and the gondola was attached. A small group of TA Paras would go up in the gondola and the balloon was raised to jumping height by the winch vehicle. The paras jumped out and the balloon was then winched down for the next group to go up. The unit generally seemed to stay for a week.

When I first saw them, the winch and hydrogen vehicles were based on the Leyland Hippo 19/H1 chassis. The Bedfords appeared in late 1974 or 1975 as winch vehicles, although some of the Hippos were still used for the hydrogen cylinders along with Ergo-cabbed AEC Mammoth Majors. I last saw them in the mid-1980s. The winch vehicles were still Bedfords but the hydrogen lorries were Seddon Atkinson artics.

When I first saw the Bedford winch vehicles, I recorded the serial numbers as 64AW80, 82 and 85.