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

[Paul B]

L/F is the service number prefix for someone who joined the Fleet Air Arm (L = Lee on Solent Port Division, F = FAA) for 12 years service plus an optional further 10 years for pension.
An alternative can be L/SF, the S indicating Short Service of 7 years plus 5 on reserve.

The X indicates a joining date after a new pay scale was introduced in the 1930s.

All the best,
PB

[Whitehunter]

Good Haul LS, Looking forward to the cleaned results, Nice to hear your starting a scrap bucket


John

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Hi Paul, What can I say yet again you've come up trumps thanks mate. Its really fascinating what all the identified letters mean, obviously there was no data protection then! Thank's for the help which is appropriate as you'll see below.

Today I started cleaning some of the finds which I'll post at a later date. But one caught my eye it was a small brass plate with screw holes in the corners. It was quite corroded and one side of it had a layer of very tough rust about 5 mm thick. The initial clean showed the outfacing face was blank apart from a small 2. This surprised me because I'd assumed the layer of rust was the remains of whatever the plate had been attached to. Anyway I had a little scrape and scrub of the rusted side and could just see a few letters stamped into the face showing through. This was good news so I set about revealing them, the rust proved much tougher than expected even the de rust fluid made no impression, so in the end had to resort to brut force, only recommended for extreme situations using the flat end of a hammer I gently tapped the surface to crush the rust up. This shifted the tough stuff and then I left it in more de rust fluid for an hour.
Finally another name plate was revealed this time in brass M J LANDSAY LFX 797931 followed by RNAS (Royal Navy Air Service). Sadly due to the heavy rusting I had no choice but to clean it extensively which has brightened the brass more than I would have liked but I suppose given time it'll dull down again. But I'm very pleased to have it. It's another L = Lee on Solent so Im assuming this must have been a sizeable new recruits induction centre? The plate also shows an X for joining on the New post 1930 pay scale. I wonder if the name plates are off personal property boxes like a mechanics tool box or even Aircrew kit lockers.

Hi John, Its a great idea salvaging the scrap, removing the potential pollutants from the countryside, saving a little of the earths resources from being dug out by recycling and best of all there's a few quid in it that can be used to buy more relics for the collection. Im kicking myself now for not doing it sooner.
Cheers
LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

So here at last are some of the recently cleaned finds. They've actually sat in my finds bag for a while but it's been nice to find the time and motivation to get them sorted out (there's still more to do though:rolleyes:). There's no great pieces but they're still items of interest. I'll carry on exhibiting them though because I suppose this has become a sort of dairy of the finds that have been rescued.

Sadly the first photo in this batch has appeared out of order and is shown as the last in this batch. It is a selection of various alloy pieces. Painted in various colours grey, light blue, green and a pale yellow. The next photo shows the markings I could find on a couple of pieces.



This is a large sized copper made lid with a shiney brass type wash over the top. For Aladdin Blue Flame Heater Wick Cleaner. Being an Airfield during Winter it must have been very cold working in the volumous Hangers or even sleeping in the tin huts. So I guess to improve the situation any and all types of heater would be employed to help make life just a little more bearable. I guess this nice lid is associated with this time and practice.



The end of a webbing belt?, still retaining some of the paint. It is marked with the number T173.



Next up are a few different small sized light bulbs, all the glass globes are opaque which I think is due to glass sickness.

The first bulb is a distinctive shape and larger than most. Due to it having plenty of markings around it's base I had to take a seperate photo and merge the images to show these.





Now I like this little well marked Air Ministry bulb, sadly it exhibits no further markings.



This final bulb is marked Made in USA and again has no other markings.



I like this small green painted alloy braket, still retaining its well marked chrome wing nuts.



A few more will follow, thank you for looking.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

This hinged bracket is the type that was riveted to the back of the schematic plan for the light series bomb arming box. I was amazed to see, as I washed the mud off and removed the rust staining that below it remained an original ink stamp dated 35? had still survived together with a reference number.



This picture shows close up of all the stamps and impressed markings.



These are all aero external hinge plates that were rivetted to the air frame and lifting panels. I have a couple of complete lengths which are around 3 feet long. I like all the shades of paint in various blues and greens some having blue at one end merging to green at the other. The underside is painted a pale yellow colour.



Close up of some of the markings I found.



A couple of socket/tube ends perhaps for oxygen?



Really this is just a piece of alloy scrap but as I washed the mud away I was surprised to see someone had hand written STAB probably for Starboard.



A long in length and well marked alloy nut.



Finally a mixed bag including a Naval anchor marked tea cup fragment, a couple of ..303 cartridges dated 1940 and 42, another small bulb, various fuses, a larger alloy tube that splits into two etc.



Thats it for now thank you for looking and I'll post more pictures of items as they're cleaned.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Paul B]

Hi Paul, What can I say yet again you've come up trumps thanks mate. Its really fascinating what all the identified letters mean, obviously there was no data protection then! Thank's for the help which is appropriate as you'll see below.
<SNIP>
It's another L = Lee on Solent so Im assuming this must have been a sizeable new recruits induction centre?

No problem, always glad to assist.

Lee on Solent was the Port Division of the RN that the FAA came under for administrative purposes.

Other prefixes include:

Home Port Divisions
C = Chatham
D = Devonport
P = Portsmouth
LT = Lowestoft (WWII only)
R = Rosyth (WWII only)

Fleet Air Arm
L = Lee-on-Solent
FAA = Fleet Air Arm (WWII only)

Overseas Port Divisions
MALTA = Malta
GOA = Goa
A = Alexandria (WWII only)

The other letters in the code to indicate trade and length of service, F and SF for FAA personnel already mentioned.

All the best,
PB

[381st digger]

Well done LUCKY. Your doing a great job cleaning your finds. The name tags are great!!!
Cant wate for your next post.
Andy

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Thanks Andy for the thumbs up ,
Have you being digging your site recently? I always look forward to seeing your posts with all the US Boeing gear.

Surprisingly Ive found yet another name plate, this time made of aluminium it has proved harder to photograph it clearly so Ive included a couple of pictures. But what's very strange about this is that just above the impressed RN number is another different RN number scratched on and above that a few letters of a name also scratched on that was over printed with the impressed name? It appears this name plate belonged to two different people at different times.





LUCKYSTRIKE

[NickW]

I think the number 35 and the nice clear stamp in picture 136 is more likely to be the inspector's individual identification number rather than a date. It amazes me how often these ink stamps survive - under the right conditions - and they do make a more mundane find into something a bit special with a tangible link to the men (and women!) that built the aircraft.

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Ive been busy cleaning some of my recent finds from the airfield.

Yesterday I had my camera with me so I took this snap to record just one of the heavy flat topped steel pegs that were used to hold the somerfield matting in place. It was only just below the current surface. Ive discovered loads on this site so it was nice to record this in situ. I covered it over and left it as it was.



I like this small ID plate for 'NAVIGATION LIGHTS'



Now Im very intrigued what this it although it has a tube running through it part way, theres a metal pin sticking out the other end and looking at it it does stike me as being a container. It's made of a fibre type early plastic almost like carbon and has three metal slithers almost like blades runing down its length on one side and as you can see it says CONTAINER DISTRIBUTOR, SINGLE OR SALVO, SAFE EXCEPT FOR JETTISON. Could it be a part of a bomb release mechanism?





This is an aero alloy small sized access panel. This is the second one Ive found from this site I posted the other one previously. It has the remains of a light green paint to the top side and a pale grey colour to the underside.



This is a chunky heavy piece of steel, a component built for strength, but it does have an alloy section in the middle I guess to help keep its weight down. I've included three pictures one showing the marks stamped into the alloy. Hopefully someone can identify its use. I was thinking perhaps its a part for a aircraft braking system?







A light fitting made of bakelite and alloy, its certainly seen better days. It is Air Ministry marked and the alloy section still retains parts of the green paint.



Thank you for looking more pictures will follow.
LUCKYSTRIKE