# Just found this interesting site..........



## Flightpath (Nov 16, 2007)

Hi,

this is my first post and I'm looking forward to being here often.

I'm an aussie liveing in Norway, have been interested in and collected aviation/WW2 aircraft related items for over 35 years. (Grandfather ex-WW2 RAAF). 
I'm an instrument maker by trade and have had a nice assortment of instruments and pilot/cockpit equipment both modern and from back into the 1930s. 
Here are a few of my WW2 RAF/RAAF items.......





Spitfire ASI, MK II clock, P6 compass, 3 x escape compasses, RAAF officer's sholder titles, RAF RAAF wings, silk map of New Guinea, 1943 RAF booklet 'Bag the Hun' RAF whistle.
(By the way, in 1940 the P6 compass was standard in the Spitfire Hurricane, not the P8 which came out in early 1941).

Right now I'm interested in 1930-40s navigation instruments and watches.
(I'm looking for an RAF 6B/159 watch without luck so far but there's always time, and I need more time to save up the cash).

I'll leave it there for now and do some more reading,

cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## Erich (Nov 16, 2007)

Flightpath please more pics, and thanks for sharing these very unique items with us

E ~


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 16, 2007)

Hi Erich,

thanks for the welcome........ (I changed my norwegian flag to an aussie one, even though I live in Norway I'm 100% aussie).

I'll have to take some more up to date photos but here's my small WW2 luftwaffe collection, I used to have a few more but sold much of my collection in Australia before I moved to Norway.






cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## Erich (Nov 16, 2007)

Great more please ...... 

question: the 2 gauges are from what A/C ?

E ~


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 16, 2007)

Here's some of my US WW2 AAF/USN items.........





cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## ccheese (Nov 16, 2007)

Welcome to the forum, Flightpath..... you'll enjoy it here.

Sorry, can't see the pic's til I get home. Company has me blocked 

Charles


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 16, 2007)

Erich said:


> Great more please ......
> 
> question: the 2 gauges are from what A/C ?
> 
> E ~



The altimeter was given to me by an ex-RAAF engineer and was from Nth Africa, he said it was from an FW 190 (dated 1943 on the rear case).
The clock was from Stavanger on the west coast of Norway, it was from an aircraft wrecked just after the war, I think it was also an FW190 (I like to think so anyway).

There were over 250 luftwaffe aircraft in Norway at the time of surrender but the british and US had all but two destroyed.

The map light is a realy nice item, much nicer than WW2 US or british ones, it has a switch and can let the light out of the side for lighting a large area or at the end where there is an iris for altering the diameter of the beam. There's also a fold-out hook for hanging the light.



cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 16, 2007)

Hi, 

Here's my 1941 dated RAF A.M. Gunsight MK II*; 1941 was the year that the MK II gunsights changed from an oval to the square reflector glass to become MK II*. (These were used in Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquitoes ect.)






I bought a 1" thich slab of aluminium, then drilled, hacksawed, milled, polished and had it anodised to make the mount that holds the sight onto the 'bookend' (made by my best friend). I think it was worth all the effort!

It is in working order with original on/off switch, socket and dimmer switch.

cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## evangilder (Nov 16, 2007)

Welcome. Nice stuff! I have an old Waltham 24 hour clock from an F4U at home.


----------



## Erich (Nov 16, 2007)

man I am getting jealous for sure .......... great historical items and in excellent condition to boot


----------



## Wildcat (Nov 16, 2007)

Welcome Flightpath, great stuff you have there mate!  What did your Granddad do during the war?


----------



## HoHun (Nov 16, 2007)

Hi Flightpath,

That is a very interesting collection you have there! 

Here are a couple of threads on instruments and gunsights you might find interesting:

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aircraft-requests/japanese-aircraft-instruments-9923.html

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/japanese-zero-instruments-9920.html

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/ez-42-gunsite-7414.html

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/ot...s-tech/british-gyro-gun-sight-mk-5a-5581.html

Personally, I'm fascinated by your "Bag the Hun" booklet as it's a piece of evidence regarding fighter doctrine and pilot training I have not seen before.

Here is a PDF with the Luftwaffe "Schießfibel" ('Shooting Primer'), which is not an exact counterpart to your manual, but represents the Luftwaffe doctrine/training:

http://www.sh-squadron.de/pdf/Schiessfibel.pdf

(It's in German, but fully illustrated. The cartoon-style illustrations were probably inspired by the RAF's own Pilot Officer Percival Prune cartoons, though it's not as evident in the Schießfibel as in the Tiger and Panther tank manuals.)

In Luftwaffe ace Willy Reschke's book on his wartime service, I read that apparently, the Luftwaffe had issued some kind of card game to train the pilots in deflection shooting, but that's about all I know about it.

I suspect that card came might have worked just like the "Bag the Hun" excercises, so I'm very curious about that booklet 

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 16, 2007)

Wildcat said:


> Welcome Flightpath, great stuff you have there mate!  What did your Granddad do during the war?



Ga'day Wildcat,

grandpa used to joke that he had one aircraft to his credit during WW2, while he was an LAC on Melville Island he drove a truck under the wing of an aircraft breaking off the pitot tube and putting it out of service for a few hours.

Here's grandpa, I have his service medals and a few other things......... he was proud of his RAAF service, later he worked at CAC down at Fisherman's Bend in the 60s, I remember the CAC christmas parties, all the other kids were haveing pony rides while I was inside looking at the Mirage III assembly line! 






cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 16, 2007)

Hi Henning,

the A.P. 2580A 'Bag The Hun' booklet was a real find, I traded a P6 compass for it from a french collector visiting Melbourne long ago.

It was printed in april 1943 to help RAF pilots with the FW190 problem, I had never seen one before and when I turned it over, I found written in ink on the back "OC 451 (RAAF) Sqdrn ME".... what a find!
(451 flew Gladiators, Huricanes and later Spitfires) 






cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## lesofprimus (Nov 17, 2007)

Awesome stuff....


----------



## Micdrow (Nov 17, 2007)

Welcome the forum flightpath, my mouth is watering at your collection. Very cool and thanks for sharing.


----------



## Lucky13 (Nov 17, 2007)

Welcome to the family mate....awesome stuff! Keep it coming....


----------



## Njaco (Nov 17, 2007)

Welcome Flightpath. Great stuff! keep it coming!


----------



## DBII (Nov 17, 2007)

I love the gunsight.

DBII


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 17, 2007)

Thanks guys, 

I bought two WW2 navigator's stopwatches today, an RAF one and a USAAF one. I'll take some new photos of some more items soon, 

cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 17, 2007)

This was my 'CP' just over seven years ago when I was single.. just me to think about then...........now I only have a glass Ikea case in the corner!







Back then I visited the Reno Air Races, Le Mans 24 hour race, Porsche MB development Deps., Paris Air Show, NORAD, Nth. Island NAS and had a day on the USS Kitty Hawk...........how things change...I'd never swap my lovely wife and kids to return to it though!

cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## Njaco (Nov 17, 2007)

Flight, isn't Ikea great! I've got a case from there also for "my junk".


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 17, 2007)

DBII said:


> I love the gunsight.
> 
> DBII




Yep I think it looks nice; I always wanted to get a Luftwaffe Revi gunsight and mount it at the other end of the bookshelf!

Anyone else want to show their collections?

-Flightpath


----------



## Heinz (Nov 17, 2007)

Hey mate welcome! Some fantastic items you have in your collection.


----------



## Aussie1001 (Nov 18, 2007)

Yes you do have an extensive collection, why did you sell the stuff ?
Seems like that is priceless in sentimental value anyway....


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 18, 2007)

Aussie 1001,
I have had to sell many things because I'm not a millionaire and need to live.
They always go to people who appreciate them as much as me and I know that they will be looked after, some things I buy just to sell and pay for other items for my collection.

I have a small collection of original combat photos, my favourite is an 8"x8" with 'SECRET' stamped and 15/6/1944 in ink on the back. It was taken from a 455 (RAAF) Squadron Beaufighter attacking a german convoy off the coast of Holland... 
I REALLY look up to 455 aircrew, they really were flying into the jaws of death attacking well protected convoys, I have to remind myself that most were only aged in their early 20s!

Here is some detail from the photo...........










Notice that the fore and aft turrets on the german minesweeper are faceing in the direction of the camera.

Cheers for now,

-Flightpath


----------



## Lucky13 (Nov 18, 2007)

WOW!!!


----------



## Wildcat (Nov 18, 2007)

Awesome


----------



## Wayne Little (Nov 18, 2007)

Hello and welcome to the forum Flightpath.
Nice collection of stuff, thanks for sharing.


----------



## Gnomey (Nov 18, 2007)

Excellent photo and collection Flightpath. Welcome to the forums.


----------



## HoHun (Nov 18, 2007)

Hi Flightpath,

>the A.P. 2580A 'Bag The Hun' booklet was a real find, I traded a P6 compass for it from a french collector visiting Melbourne long ago.

>It was printed in april 1943 to help RAF pilots with the FW190 problem, I had never seen one before and when I turned it over, I found written in ink on the back "OC 451 (RAAF) Sqdrn ME".... what a find!

Fantastic - that must have been the icing on the cake for you!  Good point on the Fw 190 ... that means the booklet is not than "just" an interesting tactical document but additionally the visible expression a critical point in the RAF's wartime history!

Thanks for the additional pictures, that is really great stuff  I've been trying to figure out how the excercises work, but I haven't entirely understood it. I suppose the pilot had to place the transparency with the ring-and-dot sight in the correct shooting position for each picture, probably assuming a certain target speed.

Wingspan would probably have been set virtually simply by providing the proper size of the ring on the transparency. However, the British sights could also be set to different ranges - was the ring supposed to have been set to a certain range for the excercises? (Or maybe there were different transparencies in the booklet?)

The other thing I haven't understand is how the pilot could check the correctness of his aim point estimate. I'd say for successful learning, this would be a requirement, or he'd simply reinforce wrong habits by excercising his flawed aimpoint estimation. This might have been done with another transparency, or maybe by printing the correct aimpoint on the back side of the page with the aircrat silhouttes so that they could be seen against the light. However, this appears impractical since the ring could only be held in one position at a time, and I see no way to mark the aim point for each silhoutte (for example using a pencil to make a dot through a hole in the gunsight centre dot  Having the aimpoint marked on the page would also be bad for repeated excercises! 

I assume the page you showed is a "demonstration page", and on the rest of the pages, the Fw 190 silhouettes are not sorted by angle-off (and perhaps shown at random ranges)? It would be interesting to know which the largest angle-off was that was represented in the book - that would tell us a lot about the tactical expectations of the RAF 

Really fascinating stuff - in my opinion, you have a real treasure there  It's really a "window into history", giving us some immediate insights on what went on in the minds of the Fighter Command leaders in WW2!

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 18, 2007)

Hi HoHun,

The FW190 is my favorite Luftwaffe aircraft so the book is very special to me as it relates to the RAAF, the Spitfire and FW190!

I'll try to get more photos of the pages , there's a lot more to the book, some pages are marked with ranges and angles off other's are not.
The transparency with the red circle/dot was in a pocket on the rear page, it represents the size of the circle on a GM MK II from where the pilot sits in the cockpit.

As you said, the gunsight could be set to give the range of the enemy aircraft via the 'stadiometric rangeing system' so range should not have been much of a problem if you set it correctly for the type of aircraft you are chaseing.
The real problem was 'angle off'.. to fire when your sight/aircraft was pointing in the correct point so the bullets hit the target.

Anyway. I'll try to get some more pages for you to see,

cheers,

-Flightpath


----------



## Bf109_g (Nov 19, 2007)

Hi there and let me welcome you to the forum, Flightpath


----------



## lastwarrior (Nov 19, 2007)

Hi! I'm glad to have you here. Those are really cool stuff. Welcome to the forum Flightpath


----------



## DOUGRD (Nov 20, 2007)

Hi Flightpath, welcome to "The Forum". I really like your collection, especially the prop hanging on the wall. Did you have to sell that too?


----------



## Flightpath (Nov 21, 2007)

Hi DOUGRD,

yes, that went to one of my friends, so I know it's being well looked after, it was a 1950s made Tiger Moth prop with an un-used spinner........... Now that I'm married and have two kids I realise even more that things are just things... they have to make way for relationships/people/life!

Of course it still hurts a bit to part with some items!!!!! 

Since I moved to Norway I have found some other items to feed my collecting habit, my wife's family was very involved in the resistance against the Nazi occupation and their quisling friends and I have collected quite a lot of items from them and some friends............ most of this was dropped by the RAF USAAF in parachute containers during late 1944 to early 1945.





Cheers, mate!

-Flightpath


----------



## DBII (Nov 21, 2007)

Cool. You have a nice collection. 

DBII


----------



## Lucky13 (Nov 22, 2007)

Impressive!


----------

