Airfield Digs in England, Anything new?

[gary1954]

I was wondering if there was anything new in the diggings going on over in England....Buler...Buler

[RAMC181]

Not too much to report from my neck of the woods I'm afraid.

For much of the year it's been simply too wet to do anything, but here's a few items from the fourth and final annual "Big Dig" back in October.

Mustang exhaust stub:



Mustang fuel filler cap assembly:



M101A1 bomb tail fuze shipping container:



Chest pack parachute D-ring and radio knob:



Large Glyco-Thymoline mouthwash bottle, Zippo for scale:



B-17 or B-24 RDF "Football" antenna casing:



H2X PFF radome:



All the best,
PB

[RAMC181]

And something found quite some time ago, and recently donated:



Found beside the alert pad at Greenham Common shortly after SAC withdrew in 1964.

[Fouga23]

So cool to see all these items recovered

[JohnB]

Is that a B-47 "Horn Button"?

If so, how did it come to be where it was found?

Unless someone "liberated" then dropped it.

[PropsRule]

I had no idea Lockheed (and Douglas, it turns out) built B-47s. I thought that sort of thing ended after the war.

I like that design. It would make a cool t-shirt.

[JohnB]

I had no idea Lockheed (and Douglas, it turns out) built B-47s. I thought that sort of thing ended after the war.

Yep.

But license production always wasn't one sided.
Yes, Douglas built Boeing designed B-17s and B-47s...but Boeing built Douglas Bostons and A-20Cs. And Boeing Canada built PBYs under various designations, as well as a few Blackburn Sharks.

[RAMC181]

Is that a B-47 "Horn Button"?

If so, how did it come to be where it was found?

Unless someone "liberated" then dropped it.

The initial thinking was it may have been from one of the two B-47s lost on the ground at Greenham Common, one crashed on landing and was scrapped on site (53-2134 "City of Lincoln"), the other being destroyed by fire after being hit by a jettisoned drop tank from another B-47 while being preflighted (53-6204).
However these particular aircraft were Douglas-built and Boeing-built respectively.

So I guess it was deliberately removed for whatever reason and then misplaced.
Oddly enough, it seems rare to see the centre cap actually in place in the period cockpit photos I've found...

All the best,
PB

[lostsurfer]

I noticed the B-47 button image, and became curious. The reason being that my father, Cptn. Richard C. West, was the one killed in the accident at Greenham Common, on Feb. 5, 1963 - accident occurred on Feb. 3. I was wondering if the button was off of his aircraft S/N 53-2134? However, having done some research, the emblem had to be off of an earlier production model as it was built at Lockheed. My father's aircraft was a B-47E-55-DT, which was the designation for the McDonald Douglas production plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma that also built some of the Boeing designed aircraft. I still wish I could find someone who was privy to information regarding the incident, as mine and my uncle's knowledge seem to differ from the written accounts, aside from some circumstances that don't seem to line up. I haven't had much luck locating the other crew members: Cmdr. Paul Canney, Lt. Don Hickman, or S/Sgt. Bobby Odom.