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WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

Article about: Hey all During a recent visit to my brothers house, he was showing me a load of WW2 airfields he had visited on his motorbike. Nearly all had been returned to agricultural land or were still

  1. #11
    ?

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Steve your right about hasps, I've got a MkIIA1 grenade packing crate with the exact same fittings, and did own a packing crate for clips of 30-06 in 5 round Springfield chargers. The grenade box is somewhere at a local museum that I'm a member of, and the 30-06 crate has disappeared somewhere back in the mists of time, as I've not laid eyes on it for about 15 years LOL. But they are most definitely of that design.

    The small lead seals are off ammo boxes etc, if you look at the hasp they have a small pressed lip which is raised, the catch for the hasp is also key shaped and is hollow in the centre, these boxes could be secured with a small padlock, but also had a seal wired in place thought the whole lot, via the little pressed lip in the face of the hasp. Also on standard army type, pressed Metal .50 cal boxes made by Reaves etc, the wire seal went though a small bracket on the front face of the box, which is in the centre of the box and locates with the flap when the lid is shut.


    Nige.
    "Now, I've designed this like a collapsing bag ! "

  2. #12

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Thanks Nige !

    My brother now owes me a tenner I told him that's what they were and he said they were trash

    Steve T

  3. #13

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Steve nice finds definateley transport nuts for the bombs and the pistols are British i have about 60 of them in brass and bakelite that i found near a dispersal site!!! if your carefull and patient you can get them to work as i have with a few of mine get the nut to screw up and down to adjust the sharp pin at the base .Look for the covers for them also they are usually near these when you find them.

  4. #14

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    airwarrior

    The pistols were found with a cardboard 'cap' in place which, unfortunately disintegrated as soon as I started to clean the pistol themselves. However, as you can see from the pictures, the transport 'butterflies' survived.

    The brass vane in both completely unscrews, allowing the firing pin full movement. As you can see from an earlier reply in this thread, this vane would part from the pistol as the bomb dropped, 'arming' the pistol itself. The firing pin would shoot forward as the bomb hit the ground, impacting on the detonator and hence the bomb

    Many thanks

    Steve T

  5. #15

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Steve will picture the cases which screw to the back end of the pistols for safe transit tommorow and post pics

  6. #16

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Steve,

    Yet another great posting.
    [B][COLOR=Black][SIZE=3][FONT=Book Antiqua][I] Steve[/I][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]

    [CENTER][I][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=orange]Did you ever get the feeling that the world was a tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?[/COLOR][/FONT]
    [/I][/CENTER]
    [B]
    [SIZE=3][COLOR=lemonchiffon][I][CENTER][FONT=Georgia]"Fly on dear boy, from this dark world of strife. On to the promised land to eternal life"[/FONT][/CENTER]
    [/I][/COLOR][/SIZE][/B]

  7. #17

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Gary's right those little lead bits are wire seals we still use them today on our ammo boxes but we don't use lead anymore though there aluminum now

  8. #18

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Thanks Cobra

    You still out in Iraq by the way ? If you are....take care out there mate !

    Steve T

  9. #19

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Yeah I'm still here Steve we are getting stacked with missions these days because of the draw-down
    just going through the motions with the occasional "boom" every once and a while to keep me on my toes
    looks like I will be home Feb-Mar and then maybe off to Afghanistan if I feel up to it
    this forum kills most of my time in between mission's and I'm extremely great full to be able to enjoy such a great site........lol i really wanted to say that!

    thanks for noticing Steve that means a lot to me and I hope you have a great holiday month ! ( I have to be very general..... lots of nationality's here

  10. #20
    ?

    Default Re: WW2 8th Airforce B-17 Base - New site ---> New FINDS !

    Quote by Steve T View Post
    Gremlin

    I must admit I did wonder !

    ...but given the HUGE quantity we could have come back with, they were definitely removing the nose plugs in the bomb dump.

    Steve T
    I think I can explain that: When they removed the nose plug near the aircraft, they didn't just toss the plug on the ground. More likely, they would have put it on the transporter and when the transporter returned to the bomb dump, they, well, dumped it! Thereby accumulating the huge amounts of plugs you found.

    Anyway, it is very unlikely they would actually arm the bombs near all the other bombs and then transport them to the plane. Even today, this it not something you would do!

    Great finds. I envy you!

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