Plenty of finds from a new site on a British Airfield.

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Here are the latest cleaned up finds.

This close up is for Steve T's benefit, a close up of the aircraft power supply socket.



As I dug this lid suddenly appeared in the side of my hole, still firmly attached to the chain.Could this be the lid of a water bottle perhaps US I thought. So I dug into the side following the chain and.......




.....this , some sort of plug hole the lid is some sort of cap or plug which is slightly smaller than the plug hole? Strange..



I dont know what this is? it very strong with two pins on the inside edges perhaps to clip something to it so it could pivet. Its light weight made of an Aluminium alloy?





An interesting fragment of painted aluminium marked on both sides 25 Amp ?? M.G.? and 10 Amp ? F46 CAM (ERA)?.



and here is the Heavy Bomber (Lanc, Halifax) bomb arming box as identified by Ian_, I knew I'd found at least one switch to go with it and managed to find it again for the picture, I have an idea I may have actually found a few more. So hopefully they'll come to light as I clean the finds. Notice that the back of the box is made of bakelite. Inside are the remains of the wires and wooden or perhaps formica terminals.







(more pictures to follow)

LUCKYSTRIKE

[Paul B]

The 5D/659 selector unit was used in a variety of aircraft.
The F46 camera was a Torpedo Aiming Camera, i.e. to capture the point of aim at torpedo release.

All the best,
PB

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Not sure what this relic is, it has a small knob on the front with an arrow, the last picture which is out of order also shows this item. It also has a nice brass ID reference plate as shown in picture 12.





The next three items are light fightings, I think the first is off am aircraft wing, can you confirm what they are?







A nice labeled piece of alloy.



An interesting box shaped relic with 4 holes that seem to fit the push in pin type plugs. The internal sides are lined with formica?



A few more early plastic perhaps bakelite electrical components.



Close up of the top of a fuse box?



This relic has pin holes to the top that appear to fit an old fashioned type of valve or perhaps a pinned cable plug.



More pictures to follow

LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

These two aero dial/gauge surrounds are the same and probably from a cock pit. They are made of a light weight alloy. Both marked but in slightly different formats, I've posted one picture of the marks for reference.





I have another one if these, I believe it is a headphone used by trainee pilots, the instructor would give instructions to the trainee through a tube attached to this head phone?



I have no idea what this small plastic item is?



This is quite heavy and made of steel of a very interesting shape, one end seems to be weighted to perhaps act as a balance. It is marked so I've shown a close up of these marks.





All the pictures posted show just a small cross section of the relic finds Ive been making, and here are a few more odds and ends.



And here is todays two hour search haul, again there are quite a few interesting relics in amongst this pile. I'm now finding that the relic finds are starting to back up a little, I'm bring them more than I can clean at a time, but no worries I'll just keep slogging away selecting a few relics to wash from the pile whenever I have a spare few minutes .







If you can help identify any of these relics please post your idea's. Thank you for any help you can offer. I'll post more pictures as I clean the relics and any interesting pieces reveal themselves.

LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Paul,
Once again thank you for the information on the F46 camera which seems to relate nicely to the dial faces I also found from his site.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Steve T]

LS

You appear to be getting one hell of a lot of finds from that dump. Looks like you're the first to search it !

Love the aircraft power supply, along with the bomb arming switch box

Some really interesting stuff you've got there.

Steve T

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Hi Steve,
Thanks for your comments, Yes I agree I am probably the first person to search this site, but if you think about it we're actually quite a small Band of Brothers us WW2 relic hunters. Most MD users tend to class WW2 as a little too modern and dont bother with it, but thats all the better for us.
It isn't a dump in the normal sense, it's spread about an area of perhaps an acre and most of this is sparce. But with the detector I search and locate the pockets of larger signals and then digging down usually find several items in the same hole and it's only shallow about 8 inches max.
My thoughts are it was probably formed by RAF mechanic's unofficially dumping rubbish behind their sheds (now long gone), they seemed to have been too lazy to use the official site so a quick no ones looking and over the shoulder attitude.
But I agree it is certainly producing a good variety of quality finds, long may it last. I went back again today for a couple of hours, this time it took me a while to find any concentrations. But then around a tree I found lots of interesting relics. As I left I checked around the rest of this tree and there's certainly still plenty of strong signals so thats where I'll start next time.
Hope this helps to inspire you to get out again soon.
All the best mate.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Here are the next cleaned batch of interesting finds.

Picture 30, First up is a nice early plastic small sized toothbrush, this picture is included for Whitehunter and his well known soft spot for vintage toothbrushes.



Picture 31, By the size of this I'm guessing this is a nice gauge dial surround?



Picture 32, I believe this is a light fitting it would have been used with the screw thread to the top?



Picture 33, I dont know what this nicely marked bakelite fitting is?



Picture 34, I found two of these nicely marked control panel identification plates, do you know what control panel they were off? perhaps Radio?



Pictures 35 & 36, I've already found one of these RAF (for aircraft use) types of batteries before at another site, but I like this one which was made in June 1942 because of the markings on the battery. Perhaps SS stands for Station School or Staff Sargeant ? W/T Wireless/Telecom ? What do you think these initials stand for?





Pictures 37 & 38, I thought these were perhaps Oxygen supply valves, but cleaning the bottom revealed they're AM marked but it also says GUNFIRE ? Could these be for the hydraulic or air supplied system that enable the weapons system MG's to be fired?





more pictures to follow

LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

I like these it makes me wonder what war time conversations passed between aircrew using these? Aircrew aircraft communications (Wireless/Telecom) jack plug and socket.



I like this large 6 inch nicely marked plate, I'm assuming it's for lighting but after finding several Torpedo related relics from this site could TORP stand for Torpedo?



An interesting marked dial surround? When found it had an arrow at the top pointing left but as it dried out this fell off and disintergrated.



This aerofoil shaped formica tube is about 2 feet long, I like the traces of the original paint. Could this be a Pitot tube mount?



A fuse fitting with a couple of the twenty or so small alloy plates that I've recovered from this site. I think they probably had a some sort of painted ID mark on them? each is marked and also boasts an aviation quality mark.



I dont know what this is? its about the size of an aerosol lid but with a sloping top.



If you can help identify any of the items shown please let me know, thank you for any help you can give. Thats it for now, its time for more relic cleaning

LUCKYSTRIKE

[Steve T]

I can assure you LS......I don't need inspiring to get out there searching.....I just need a foot that isn't burnt to hell n back !

Steve T