R.A.F relic found on Omaha beach

[cricketchris1944]

I was thinking this myself, as why else would it have been found there,
unless it somehow got into the hands of the Army or Marine Commandos for radio use.........

Or better still, washed ashore from a downed aircraft !
See if it will float in water - this might be the answer !

( It is not a battery per se, but only a 'cell'. Two or three cells make up a true battery.
If it had been on a plane, say, a single engine fighter, it would have been centrally
located in the fuselage directly behind the pilot. )

It was found in a foxholl on Omaha Beach with other US items.I think the radio idea is a good one.

[ian_]

Hello Chris, I have seen quite a few RAF aircraft batteries/accumulators and this looks very small. A Spitfire accumulator looks to be (with only the wood grain in your pic for scale) about six times as big. It could be from a small spotter plane like an Auster. As already said it might be for a ground obsever. Does it still have the lead inside?

[Paul B]

I have seen a reference to these 2V 20AH accumulators being installed in Austers, unfortunately I couldn't find out for what purpose.
I would assume however that it would be communications related, as the same capacity acc. was standard on a number of Army wireless sets.

All the best,
PB

[cricketchris1944]

Hello Chris, I have seen quite a few RAF aircraft batteries/accumulators and this looks very small. A Spitfire accumulator looks to be (with only the wood grain in your pic for scale) about six times as big. It could be from a small spotter plane like an Auster. As already said it might be for a ground obsever. Does it still have the lead inside?

It is the plastic shell only.
the botton 3 by 3 1/2 inches
side 6 1/2 inches

[cricketchris1944]

I have seen a reference to these 2V 20AH accumulators being installed in Austers, unfortunately I couldn't find out for what purpose.
I would assume however that it would be communications related, as the same capacity acc. was standard on a number of Army wireless sets.

All the best,
PB

Did it have picture of it.

[Paul B]

I've rechecked the file, and it appears there were a few pages missing........

Although the start of it covers Austers, the section referring to these accumulators appears to deal with another, larger, aircraft entirely.

It deals with the modification of this as yet unidentified aircraft type as a glider tug, so likely a Stirling, Halifax or Albermarle.

The accumulator was part of the power supply for the A1143 Intercom Amplifier Set, in this case used to allow communication between the glider and tug, and worked with the standard RAF T1154 and R1155 wireless sets as fitted in larger RAF aircraft and even the High Speed rescue launches.
It was also used with the TR9F wireless set.

All the best,
PB

[cricketchris1944]

I've rechecked the file, and it appears there were a few pages missing........

Although the start of it covers Austers, the section referring to these accumulators appears to deal with another, larger, aircraft entirely.

It deals with the modification of this as yet unidentified aircraft type as a glider tug, so likely a Stirling, Halifax or Albermarle.

The accumulator was part of the power supply for the A1143 Intercom Amplifier Set, in this case used to allow communication between the glider and tug, and worked with the standard RAF T1154 and R1155 wireless sets as fitted in larger RAF aircraft and even the High Speed rescue launches.
It was also used with the TR9F wireless set.

All the best,
PB

Thank you for the info.

[airwarrior]

This is 100% from an aircraft it is from the radio sets i know they were used in lancs as i found one on a recovery a few years ago.

[ILH]

Hi Chris, nice find

If it is from a glider interphone (I wouldn't know) then here's a picture of the Waco end.

As to how it got there, I'm afraid I can only muddy the waters with more possibilities:

The 326th Airborne Engineers, 101st Airborne, landed on D-Day and built an airstrip, called T-1, right by Omaha Beach in 2 days.
The air photo below is from about D-Day+8 and was prepared for C-47 pilots flying from Grove in England.
This strip was later used to recover gliders back to England.
Eventually it was enlarged properly and became Airfield A-21, Coleville-Sur-Mer.

sorry
jim.

[airwarrior]

It needs to be said also that this may of been wreckage from a pre d day aircraft and because it was found in a fox hole doesnt mean that it was used in there.If an aircraft had of crashed in the area debris would be spread over a wide area and in the clean up many items are left.Could even have been picked up while bulldozing during the clean up and got mixed in with us debris of war.