New UK Airfield explore, with interesting finds..

**LUCKYSTRIKE** · 08-07-2011, 09:20 PM

At last here are pictures of some of my cleaned finds from the last visit to the airfield.

First up is an RAF radio channel selector

New UK Airfield explore, with interesting finds..

A couple of bomb pistol or fuse, wind vane protecting caps.

AM marked 37B brass value type tubing.

AM marked bakelite.

This is the second Ive found of these things, it's made of aero alloy, light weight but strong, some sort of clamping holder.

This is very strong and heavy, its made of steel and reminds me of a wheel hub perhaps a rear wheel type. Sadly its not marked, do you have any ideas what it could be?. I actually found another but left it behind. But if it's something of interest then I'll go pick it up next time I visit.

A selection of small bakelite and formica made items.

These items were all dug out of a rubbish tip that's deeply covered in nettles, so it was poignant to find one marked 'Nettle Holder'?

This last item has appeared out of the order, but appears to be a cap perhaps for fuel?, it's made of aero alloy with a brass insert/base. I'm assuming this is to stop the risk of sparks.

Thanks for viewing.

more pictures of items will follow

LUCKYSTRIKE

**cornishboy** · 08-07-2011, 09:27 PM

neat finds,great condition,well presented,thanks lucky

**LUCKYSTRIKE** · 08-07-2011, 11:03 PM

I'm very pleased to have this

the remains of a Navigational Computer.

Surprisingly this has sat in my finds bag for several months. Because when found it was covered in what appeared to be some sort of cement (you can see its remains on the rear) and to make it worse stuck to this was some sort of fur like stuff similar to the insulating lining from a jacket. Anyway because of all of this, I found it hard to tell what it was so put off the hard work of cleaning it.

But recently due to a build up of finds to be cleaned, I checked through all my waiting to be cleaned bags to reduce numbers, sorting out all the less interesting pieces mostly scrap for my scrap bucket. Whilst doing this I rediscovered this and it almost ended up in my brass scrap bucket, but I could just make out the wheel, so thought it was worth giving it a clean to check it out.

You can see the results

, it was hard work I tried everything to remove the cement concretion but found it impossible to shift the verdigris without the use of my electric drill with brass brush, but I had to work on it for so long that the cleaning was starting to damage it. So Im leaving it now as is still in relic but now identifiable condition

.

I've found a load of these but still have no idea what they are, if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

A nicely marked piece of aero alloy.

A small but interesting DH (De Haviland) marked alloy bracket with the remains of plywood attached. I've found several DH marked pieces from this site where Mosquito's were based amongst others during the year.

A large electronic coil sadly with no markings.

and finally an interesting shaped alloy plate, do you have any ideas what this could be ?, Ive found loads of these at this site.

Thank you for any help you can give.
All the best.

LUCKYSTRIKE

**LUCKYSTRIKE** · 08-07-2011, 11:48 PM

Yesterday I had a few hours free, so decided to have another go at this dump, I'm pleased with the finds recovered for 3 hours graft

Amongst these relics is the top cover of a US mess tin, (a strange find) the fin from a 2 inch Mortar, another Navigational computer but this time in much better condition, a soap tin, a Grants enameled name plate probably for hanging on whisky bottles perhaps from the mess. Various alloy aircraft components, a couple of flare cartridge bases, an old and well marked but very relic RAF accumulator battery with a switch still attached and something I really like, a simple trench art ashtray made from an offcut of airskin still exhibiting light blue paint on the underside.

I'll post the cleaned and preserved pictures of the interesting relics as they're done.

All the Best.

LUCKYSTRIKE

**CARL** · 08-08-2011, 12:10 AM

Great site and super photos...that mist is fantastic! Perfect backdrop for the abandoned area. Interesting finds too, good luck with the ids

Regards

Carl

**Whitehunter** · 08-09-2011, 07:29 AM

Thats a good mix of finds

look forward to the clean up

**Steve T** · 08-09-2011, 06:36 PM

Excellent group of finds. I see a couple of the radio channel selector panels and lots of other bits that I recognise

Steve T

**LUCKYSTRIKE** · 08-12-2011, 10:45 PM

I've now cleaned most of last weekends find's so Im up loading some here, please let me know if you can confirm id's on any of the relics shown.
Thank You.

Are these the plugs/junctions from the air crews oxygen supply tubing?

The next picture of mixed finds has appeared out of order at the end of this post, but next is a close up of a couple of the marked finds.

An RAF radio channel selector panel and a couple of 2 inch flare cartridge bases.

A couple of dental paste/powder containers, I was surprised when I cleaned the aluminium container that it is Macleans Paste and not Gibbs dentifrice as expected.

I'm afraid I dont know what this aero alloy component is or was off, but it is stamped with VACB which denotes Vickers Armstrong Chester branch manufacture.

This box is thick aluminuim much thicker than you expect for say a sweet or tobacco tin so my first thought is it was probably a soap tin, but after checking umpteen books I've been unable to find a picture of one looking like this to confirm. So if its not a soap tin do you know what it was used for/contained?

Only a little item but could this small ali catch plate be part of a buckle from the chin strap of say a US M1 helmet?

Do you have any idea what this could be?, it's light weight, mainly made of alloy so probably is from an aircraft?

Now for my favourite find a Mark III aero Navigational Computer, as used by the Navigators of aircraft. I have not moved the dial wheels so they can be left in the same position as the last Navigator who used them all those years ago. When cleaning this I was terrified I would accidently remove the black paint from the markings but on the whole I think I was successful. The Mark II Navigation Computer found at the same site (posted previously) has just been included for comparison.

A nicely marked US fuel can cap? still retaining much of the original paint.

more will follow

LUCKYSTRIKE

**corblimy** · 08-12-2011, 11:11 PM

The heavy duty bracket you describe in image 50 looks very much like the end or No1 bearing from a Merlin.
image 70 is very similar to the radio channel selector bracket from a Spitfire, only to reflect this the serial should be marked 300 somewhere.

Image 76 is a plug from a 40 gallon drum. Trisure still make these!

**LUCKYSTRIKE** · 08-13-2011, 12:00 AM

Next up is quite a large peice of aero alloy, I've shown a few angles of this relic to give more of an idea of it's shape, part of it similar to a stir up shape still moves?. It's marked DH for De Havilland and because the ref number begins 98 I think its from a Mosquito. Do you know what this part is?

I'm very pleased to have found this, it's an ashtray made from a piece of aircraft airskin that still exhibits much of it's original green paint to the underside. I can just imagine a member of the ground crew making this at a quiet time

.

It must be unusual to find a 2inch mortar fin on an airfield dump but I did, this is a smoke emitting mortar and because one side of one of the fins is painted red I assume it was for red smoke

.

A US M-1910 (Can Meat), Mess tin lid although introduced in 1918 during WW1 many were still issued during WW2.

The top has A2 or perhaps AS with a backwards S scratched onto it.

Quite a large aircraft hatch/panel retaining much of its original paint, strangely it has rivets to the edge as shown in the right hand picture. I can find no markings in the metal so this might well have been manufactured in the field.

This aero alloy top plate with a circular cut out on the underside, exhibits a fair amount of the grey/blue airforce paint. On the underside I found some markings but all I could decypher was ALCOA Aluminium Corporation of America. I could not discover what the 3201 -229 means.

Another couple of the unusual but so far unidentified pieces from this airfield. The example at the back is marked CANARY?, the same as some posted earlier on this thread. Sadly I cant find what the AID stamp stands for?

This shaped cover is also made of light weight alloy and is nicely marked with a data plate on the end. Looking up Eclipse Aviation the company appears to still be in business today but I could not find anything to do with its WW2 manufacture. But from it's shape it appears to be an electrical components cover?

and the final peice again marked DH with 98 so off a De Havilland Mosquito but what is it?, to me it looks like perhaps a hydraulic pipes fitting or maybe even oxygen supply. When found it was still attached to a small amount of plywood but this just crumbled away.