More 34th Bomb Group B-24 relics

**gremlin** · 09-02-2009, 08:27 AM

The picture below shows a few more relics from my most recent trip to the 34th Bomb Group B-24 crash site near Wattisham in Suffolk ...

It shows : the remains of a headset jackbox, a knob from an oxygen regulator, a small piece of the front of an oxygen regulator, 2 steel squares from the flack jackets worn by the crew, an unknown switch ... and the remains of 2 cycle chains

.... well, no, actually these are two control linkages ....

All the best,
Gremlin

**Steve T** · 09-03-2009, 10:01 AM

The top bent piece of metal looks like similar items I have found, but they turned out to be fixings for corrugated roof's. The bend wrapped it around one of the corrugations.

How can you tell the difference between what I described and what you found ?

Steve T

**gremlin** · 09-03-2009, 10:17 AM

Ah, ye of little faith! Well two reasons ... i've also found the nissen hut fixings you mention and they tend to have hole in the centre (the B-24 in question actually crashed into a living site at Wattisham so there are actually lots of these nissen hut fixings around ..) and the second reason is that I actually found a complete section of flack jacket at Halesworth airfield in the late 1980s which still had many of the steel plates attached to the heavy canvas fabric. Unfortunately the flack jacket remains are at my parent's house ... but I will send you a photo when I next visit them ...

By the way, can I just say that although I've found lots of interesting bits and pieces I'm still extremely impressed with the finds you made at your airfield ... especially the toothpaste and shaving lotion items ... in all my years of searching I've never had the luck to locate such items ... and your flare pistol ... well that was really fantastic!!

**Steve T** · 09-04-2009, 10:00 AM

Thanks

.....I am equally impressed with your finds and would love to find some of that .50cal feed belt and that 'No Hand Hold' plate !

Steve T

**gremlin** · 09-04-2009, 11:19 AM

Thanks Steve,

I think that I might have identified the 'No Hand Hold' plate ... I was browsing through Roger Freeman's 'Mighty Eighth War Manual' last night and there it was! It appears to be the reflector hood from a K-14 computing gunsight

... I'll scan the picture later and post it ....

I realize that you have a particular fascination for German items ... so I'll post a picture later of a rather nice manufacturer's plate from a KG 2 Dornier that I have. I found this about 2 years ago at the crash site in a wood at Waldringfield near Sudbury in Suffolk. If you are interested then i'll send you a pm with the exact crash location .... as you might have guessed from my posts ... I tend to gravitate towards the 'star and bar' rather than the bad guys

All the best,
Gremlin

**Steve T** · 09-04-2009, 01:58 PM

AHA !

I knew is was painted like an 'internal' sign rather than external

Nice find !!

Actually Gremlin I am equally as interested in USAAF and RAF stuff as well as German. The only reason I got so excited about the German stuff is that I never, in my wildest dreams, expected to find it in England !

But still......POW camps are good to search as many have never been touched by relic hunters.

It would be very nice of you to let me know about the above crash site

Many thanks

Steve T