WW2 airfield. The best visit yet THE RETURN !

[Steve T]

Hey guys

Well...despite it being damn cold and the ground being frozen, I deceided to go back to the airfield once more this year.

And i have to say it was as good as, if not BETTER than the last visit !!!

Here we go with the pictures.......


Firstly, some of the digging in action












Ok...here is the majority of the stuff i found BEFORE any cleaning took place....



...and here is most of the stack AFTER cleaning (see further down for bits not shown in this pic).



Ok....let's start off with MORE Merlin Engine exhaust stubs. Three more all found in the same area as the previous three. One is badly damaged and one is very strange INDEED !



Ok...so here is the strange one. This stub has been damaged and a new sheet of metal welded over the top of the existing stub. The workmanship is rather poor so it must have been fixed in the field. Was it damaged during the same 'incident' as the one in pieces ? Were 6 ports on one side replaced and thrown in this rubbish area ? suppose i'll never know.....



When you look inside the stub you can clearly see what the fitters were repairing.......a rather large hole in the stub itself. The romantic in me tells me that it is the hole left by a large calibre bullet.....the realist tells me it is something far more mundain. All the same, an intersting hole and repair !



Ok here are some pics not shown on the group photo above as it was too big ! Once more I find myself torn between the optimist and the realist. Optimist says it's the wheel hub off a WW2 aircraft, pessimist says it is some old bit of farm machinery. What do you guys think it could be ?





Another item a bit diffcult to see in the 'pre-cleaned' shot is this number plate. I have discovered that it is dated somewhere between 1936 and 1945....all i have to do now is track down the vehicle it was attached to. Given where i found it, surely it must be a vehicle used on the base ?



Now for what appears to be pieces of buckle, buttons and press studs AND a spark plug ! WW2 Era ? There are no markings on the plug so no help there Certainly the single press stud looks very similar to those found on the canvas cover to an American issue water bottle. Do you guys recognise any of the other items ?







I also found another one of those 'Lucas' lids along with 2 more odd items. Can anyone help with identifying them ? Is the circular item a 'cup' off a water flask ?





Another unidentified item here. Same alloy as previous examples attributed to P-51's but this one, most annoyingly, has no visible markings on it. Can anyone identify it ?



And lastly, the items most often found at this base. The cartridge cases. Firstly a whole bunch of .50 cal cartridge cases. The vast majority headstamped DM 4. In this group is also a spent 45mm calibre casing. Thomson ? Then a couple of 20mm cases along with ANOTHER cut through case ! I am epserate to discover what the guys on the base were doing when they cut up cartridge cases as this is the 5th one i have found !!!






Anyway guys...that's it for this year. I am not going back until the Spring as it is damn cold and the ground is frozen into rock !

Look forward to your comments.

Relichunter

[DonB]

Hello Relichunter,

Once again, some remarkable finds!

I'll attempt to answer some of your questions:

Your Merlin exhaust stub looks to me is if it was indeed struck by a bullet; though why it was repaired rather than simply replaced I have no idea!

The wheel does not look to me as if it is from an aircraft; though I could be wrong! Have you tried the Flypast Forum, or the API Forum ?

For the registration plate, have you tried the DVLA? "EG" was issued to Peterborough-registered vehicles (I only know this as a friend is restoring a Bedford OB bus!)...

The DM 4-marked .50 cartridge cases were manufactured at the Des Moines Ordnance plant in Iowa. The headstamp looks incomplete; usually the last two digits of the year are marked, eg. some in my collection are stamped
DM 43.

Don

[History]

The wheel is actualy a brake drum, this may have been obvious to you and I hope i didnt insult you. I have no idea what it is from .

[Steve T]

Thanks DonB

I am rather an expert on headstamps........the 4 is typical on many American made cartiridges as opposed to 44.

thanks for rest of info !

relichunter

PS History....no offence at all...i had no idea it might be a brake drum Cartridges are my thing....not vehicle parts

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Again a fantastic collection of finds, I like the repaired manifold in particular. It was probably repaired because with a war on replacement parts were not readily available. Especially at the time when Britain stood alone against Germany (the Battle of Britain) aircraft were patched up and sent back up in incredibly short spans. This may be explains a repair rather than replacement, obviously later it was replaced because thats why it was discarded for you to find.
I agree the stud and catch are US maybe they had use of the base later. Just a thought but perhaps by cutting the top off a cartridge, cutting down the side and across the bottom and rolling flat you'd end up with a useful rectangular peice of brass. Perhaps used for another repair or even home made trench art. We'll probably never know its just a suggestion.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[zwerge]

My guess on the cut down cartridge cases would be trench art.

[packin9]

Great stuff, again! The one just before the shells looks to be some sort of collar used to clamp something down,perhaps on a engine. What was the 'average' depth and the 'deepest' that you found these? And if you don't mind my asking,what type of metal detector do you use?

[Adrian Stevenson]

The brass belt buckle is from a British 1937 pattern belt, worn by the Army and the RAF.

The US style "Lift the dot" fastener was also employed by the British on vehicle covers and canvas doors.

Cheers, Ade.

[mk1rceme]

The other fastener with the double snap and hook shown with the Lift-The-Dot fastener is an oxygen mask clip that attached to a flight helmet. I have several of these around.

[Steve T]

Packin9 - I use a fairly basic detector. Bounty Hunter Tracker. It does me very nicely and will detect small objects down to a decent depth and large objects just short of Australia. The casings and small items tend to be around 8-10inches down. The larger objects tend to be slightly less deep although i did find one of the stubs at around 18inches. There is alot of metal roadway left on the site and I have found this down at 2 foot.

Ade - Many thanks. Your knowledge of stuff like this is awesome.

mk1rceme - Oh wow ! Great stuff.....many thanks.