Dug up at Deopham Green ?

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16 years 6 months

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I have been to another meeting with the visiting veterans at Deopham Green today, There was a small display of all things to do with 452nd BG on display including a selection of parts ploughed up, or otherwise collected from the airfield area by local farmers etc ... there are no positive id's to any of the parts, so armed with camera ... will feed the photos slowly to save confusion !

Firstly, this was said to be from a Halifax which crashed just outside the airfield ????
Part 1a
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0052.jpg
Part 1b
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0053.jpg
Part 1c
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0054.jpg
Part 1d
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0055.jpg

Original post

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

Interesting.. any part numbers?

Member for

16 years 6 months

Posts: 2,322

Unfortunatly not Peter, I did a quick scan of all the parts and found no numbers at all !!! :mad:

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16 years 10 months

Posts: 2,004

Don't think its Halifax, looks like wing structure from a B17.

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16 years 6 months

Posts: 2,322

ian ... yes B-17 could well be .... "I know nothing"

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16 years 10 months

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I saw a bit of B17 while clearing my loft which looked similar. On closer inspection I might be misleading you, same colour, slightly different shape.

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16 years 6 months

Posts: 2,322

Yes ian I see what you mean .. there will be someone along in a mo who will put us all in the correct ball park ???? :)

Meanwhile another small part, a lot of people were picking this up and several suggested a spend cartridge ejection chute ! but no .. far too small .. another talked of chaff dispenser ??? Over to you ???

Part 2a
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0012.jpg

Part 2b
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0013.jpg

Part 2c
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0014.jpg

Part 2d
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0015.jpg

Part 2e
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0016.jpg

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14 years 9 months

Posts: 141

metal link ejector....

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15 years 7 months

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attaches to the side of the gun

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16 years 6 months

Posts: 2,322

Thanks for those answers ! metal link ? that's what joins the shells together in a machine gun supply chain ! ?? :confused:

A few more of the artifacts dredged up from the Norfolk soil ......
Actualy the first part, possibly from the exhaust / supercharger area, has been used by my friend the farmer for many many years as part of the downpipe system on one of his buildings ?????

Part 3a
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0002.jpg

Part 3b
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0003.jpg

These I think are spark plug transit cases ? apparently they are everywhere !
Part 4a
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0017.jpg

Small alloy casting / cover with 'T' section protrusion ??
Part 5a
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0023.jpg

Part 5b
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0025.jpg

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16 years 10 months

Posts: 2,004

The casting is the rocker cover from a radial engine cylnder, couldn't say which engine though.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

The spark plug transit cases are actually fake sparkplugs usually filled with moisture absorbing material and were fitted on engines either new ones or overhauled and were swapped with real ones before installing and running an engine.

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16 years 6 months

Posts: 2,322

ian. thank you for that, I overheard a conversation between two of the vets on the night trying to decide which engine a piston, that was in this display, was from ? there seemed to be no definate answer ??

Peter. Yes I can see that ! Thank you ! It is so easy to listen to those who 'think they know what they are talking about' and believe them ? And so much nicer to get an answer from those who do know what they are talking about .... plastic plugs to fill a gap .... so easy !!!

Keith.

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14 years 9 months

Posts: 141

yes, ,(but without seeing the dimensions cant really say for sure but I reckon thats what they are) disintegrating metal links that hold the rds together that then get spewed out of the side of most MGs, so instead of channelling the rounds into the weapon like the feed chutes you get , these help feed the used links out, a bit like the lower intestine if you will......;)

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17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

...trying to decide which engine a piston, that was in this display, was from?

I don't suppose you took a picture of the piston did you?

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16 years 6 months

Posts: 2,322

Creaking Door. Yes i have these photos of the piston, And to help with scale they are all placed upon an A4 sheet of paper !!

Keith.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0004.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0005.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/keithnewsome/coventry/deopham%20green/DSC_0006.jpg

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17 years 6 months

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Thanks for posting those! I’m not very good with US pistons but my guess would be Pratt & Whitney R-2800.

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19 years 2 months

Posts: 634

Looks like that piston took some serious work with a heavy duty engineer's knocking stick to get it out! seized engine? The rocker cover looks identical to parts we found at a B-17 crash site, so R 1820 Cyclone?

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17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

Actually a Wright R-1820 makes much more sense.....I don’t know why I thought it was from a Pratt & Whitney R-2800; only that ‘looks’ bigger than a Pratt & Whitney R-1830, which I’m fairly sure it isn’t from, as I said US engines aren’t really my thing! :o

I’ve got a Wright R-3350 piston that looks similar (which would make sense as the R-3350 was based on a double-row R-1820). I’ll see if I can post a photograph later.

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18 years 9 months

Posts: 64

B-17 42-39977

Hi everyone,

Many years ago I was part of the Norwich Aviation Society (now sadly defunct), and we recovered a few parts of a Deopham Green B-17 (42-39977 iirc). It was rather unlucky on the day it was lost, as it crashed shortly after take-off next to the A11. Sadly, all the crew perished. Somewhere I have copies of the official reports.

The landowner at the time kindly let us go and dig. Sadly I have no photographs of the relics, which amounted to a few box fulls... mostly spent cartridges from the surface and heavily melted/corroded parts from underground.

Many years later I was able to return to the field, as by some miracle the land was sold to the father of a friend I was at school with. Unfortunately, I was not able to locate any more relics.

Maybe if I had had a better metal detector, I could have found more. I am pretty certain there is more to be had. If he still owns the land I am pretty sure I could arrange a return trip :)

Steve

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 16,832

Spent shells in an aircraft that crashed on take-off sounds a bit dubious.

Blown cases perhaps, from a post-crash fire?

Moggy