Warbird Information Exchange

Here's a few bits and bobs recovered from a WWII airfield dump last weekend:

Crockery:


Brylcreem tube:



B-24 control system part, which was in amongst a load of assorted Mosquito parts:



Part number appears to be GK32C-8421, the arm is marked GK32C113-7R, so it's a right-handed whatever-it-is.
I don't have a B-24 IPC, so can anyone ID the item more accurately please?



Nice stainless item, if a little squashed.
Not from the dump airfield, but something I picked up on the surface at Thorpe Abbots earlier in the day:



24-137201 part number looks to be Boeing, and it has a Boeing inspection stamp, but I can't find a match in my B-17G IPC.



All the best,
PB

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Paul Bellamy

401BG Association Historian & Honorary Life Member
401BG Historical Society (UK) Member
1st Air Division HQ Historical Society (UK) Founder Member
Director of Archives & Collections, Airfield Research Group Archive, Alconbury
RAF Alconbury Base Historian

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for posting.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

It's amazing you just found that on the ground at the field like that. I would have thought those old 8th AF fields had been picked clean on the surface decades ago...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Is it possible over the years objects like that somehow surface due to rain and other forces of nature?

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

The stainless item looks to be part of the turbo unit, i seem to recall seeing this rectangular type piece mounted on it somewhere.

Sure, but you normally wouldn't expect to see something like that just laying on the ground. With erosion you'd expect to see a part of of sticking out at best, not just laying out in the open.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Annual ploughing always brings a few bits to light, but this particular piece was sitting quietly just inside a thicket of trees.
Nearby I found a few bomb arming wires sticking out of the soil, so presumably the winter frosts had brought them up to the surface.

_________________
Paul Bellamy

401BG Association Historian & Honorary Life Member
401BG Historical Society (UK) Member
1st Air Division HQ Historical Society (UK) Founder Member
Director of Archives & Collections, Airfield Research Group Archive, Alconbury
RAF Alconbury Base Historian

I shouldn't be surprised, I guess. You're very lucky on that find, and I really envy you.
in 2000, I was on a unit leader battlefield tactical analysis at Gettysburg with my Army unit. We were in the area of the "Railroad cut" and I saw a piece of dirt break loose and roll down. I'm not sure why I walked all the way down into the cut, but I found an unfired Minié ball (a bullet from a muzzle loading rifle) that just got dislodged. It'd been in that dirt clod since 1863. I probably should have turned it over to the park service but I think the actual land I was standing on was owned by the railroad. Anyway, the park service must have millions of them, so I kept it. It never occured to me that I'd find one there as that place has been picked over for 150 years as of this July...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

Finding history like that is way cool! It makes you wonder what else lies just below the surface waiting to be found.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

I suppose we're drifting a bit off topic here, but...

When I was in junior high school (many decades ago!) we took a field trip to Brandywine Battlefield State Park (site of a Revolutionary War battle; the "redcoats" defeated Washington's army and marched on and took Philadelphia). While we were there, I found a spherical-ish metallic object that turned out to be a British musket ball! I turned it over to the park staff, after showing the teachers and other students. It was very cool to be standing on that battlefield holding a genuine historic artifact in my little hand!

I've never had the pleasure of working an aviation burial site dig, but it's definitely on my "bucket list"!

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

I'm sure we had a few of these out of the hole at Weybread last year too, or something very similar.

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Paul Bellamy

401BG Association Historian & Honorary Life Member
401BG Historical Society (UK) Member
1st Air Division HQ Historical Society (UK) Founder Member
Director of Archives & Collections, Airfield Research Group Archive, Alconbury
RAF Alconbury Base Historian

Back in the mid '70s my sixth grade class was doing a project on the history of our area, a small town in southern Michigan. During the war, a military plane crashed on an area farm one foggy night. There's still a little memorial there, although the remains of the pilot were recovered. The farmer showed us what he said was the largest piece of the aircraft recovered..a mangled chunk of aluminum a couple of feet across. Somewhere there's a pic of my friend and I holding it, taken for a slide show that was part of our project.

The farmer said then that bits of wreckage still surfaced every spring when he plowed, but he said the engines were still buried some 20 feet down, as the plane went in vertically. This article gives some details, but says the plane was a Corsair..which would mean it only had a single engine.

http://www.hillsdalecounty.info/history0113.asp

The farmer gave us a lurid description of that night. He was a child at the time, but said that his mother was awakened by the crash, and when she went outside she saw flaming wreckage, smelled burnt flesh, and pieces of the pilot hanging in the trees (the tale may have been subject to a bit of embellishment over time, of course.)

Next time I'm visiting my hometown, I'll have to swing by and see if the property owners will let me photograph the memorial.

SN

I went on a wreck chase outside of vegas about 7 years ago in between a business trip. I brought back some cool junk, yes junk!! but if it could all talk it would all tell cool stories.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Not a personal recovery story, but perhaps worth sharing.

My forum name stems from my real life job as a watchmaker specializing in Hamilton. I've written several books, and I've been the company's consulting historian since about 1999. All of the questions about vintage watches that come through their website end up being forwarded to me. Three years ago someone wrote to ask about an aircraft instrument he found in the wreckage of an F4U Corsair in Guam while he was stationed there in 1982. I identified it for him and he was very grateful. That was the last I thought of it until I saw this on eBay; the description said it would come with a printout of information from Hamilton's historian. I did a quick search in my archive and sure enough, it was the same guy. I couldn't resist buying it. Turns out he's a great guy. He sent me a couple of Japanese anti-aircraft shells he found near the Corsair wreckage, which had crashed very close to a Japanese emplacement. No doubt that's what brought the plane down. He also sent pictures of the wreck, which was widely scattered and very overgrown after almost 30 years in a jungle. A really special WWII relic, IMHO.

This shows the recovered (rusted and unrestorable) clock next to a restored version:



Here's an old picture showing a 37500 in a Corsair:



The seller sent me a bunch of pictures of the wreckage he found 30+ years ago.



He also sent me precise GPS details on the location. Even in recent satellite photos you can see an indentation in the ground where the plane went down.

That is one nice watch!

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Magister Aviation
It's all in my book