Some nice US 8th Airforce finds 30/1/11

**381st digger** · 04-01-2013, 11:12 AM

A couple of bits from this weekends poke about.
Lots of these incendery bomb tips.

**Steve T** · 04-03-2013, 04:07 PM

Nice tile breakers

By the way, when did you get your upside down sink & drainer installed? Surely all the water runs out before you can do any washing up doesn't it ?

**Richard_J** · 04-03-2013, 05:28 PM

Perhaps they are RAAF and feel more at home upside down?

**381st digger** · 04-17-2013, 07:24 PM

Nice piece of ball turret armour plating.

**381st digger** · 04-17-2013, 07:31 PM

Anybody know what the switches were on the left of the pilot in this b17 cockpit? I think I've found one of them. Would be nice to know what it was.

Andy

**Paul B** · 04-18-2013, 06:08 PM

They are the individual generator switches, but I don't think they had those safety guards in wartime use...

**Steve T** · 04-18-2013, 07:44 PM

Had a trawl through the net for period photos but couldn't find any definitive 'proof' of their existence during the war years. Indeed, of the five or six I did find, none showed the protective covers like the one you have. I did find a couple of pictures of restored cockpits, (one I believe is the Memphis Belle), which do show them, but they could have been added incorrectly.

**NickW** · 04-18-2013, 07:49 PM

I have a set in the shed somewhere - A-26 Invader crashed 1944 - May get time to look at the weekend, but if not might be worth a Google?

**381st digger** · 04-19-2013, 07:50 PM

Could they have come from another switch on the aircraft? They were found on an B17 base dump so are ww2.

Cheers Andy.

**Paul B** · 04-20-2013, 06:51 PM

Could well have done Andy.

Yours is a hold-on type switch. Flip up the cover and hold the switch in position to use. Release it and it flicks back into the off position and the cover closes.
Other period aircraft toggle switches with safety covers had a different style of cover, with a cutout to allow the switch to be left in the on position.