Jazza,
I dont know how much has changed in the years since I last served in the Royal Armoured Corps as a 17/21st Lancer, but I am assuming from speaking with friends that it is still fairly reinforced.
Despite other nations festooning their vehicles with all manner of personal kit, in the British Army this is not standard practice as it was always an operational requirement that crew kit was stored internally in the bins that are provided on the vehicle. Small amounts of kit can be stowed internally and comprised of what was required as a 'bail out' bag, which consisted mainly of personal webbing with ammo, survival kit and water as well as the personal weapon which in my day was the Stirling SMG. In the bins would be other individual kit, including some spare clothing, washing and mess kit etc. Much of the time this was packed into a standard civilian sportsbag. Much of the time the remainder of the personal possessions were stored in the issue kit bag and kept in the regimental logistics unit. Other equipment that might be carried such as Camping Gas grills and cookers was also stowed with the on vehicle equipment.
If you think that much of our operational procedure was designed towards our role within NATO in defending against the Warsaw Pact in Western Europe, with the need to fight in forested and built up areas, then any kit that was stowed externallay would have been at risk of being ripped off the vehicle. Also it meant that there was less chance of things being lost to shell or nuclear at the worst. There would also have been less danger of contamination in event of the use of chemical weapons.
This appeared in my time that APC's were stowed in a similar way.
Hope this helps,
John
