Any Idea What This Might Have Come From?

[WriteStuff]

My dad took this out of a WWII aircraft before it was pushed off the side of HMS Chaser to make more room for civilian passengers and refugees from the U.K. headed to the U.S. in 1945. Made by Veeter in Hartford, CT. Any idea what this might have come from?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

It looks like a hobbs meter used to track aircraft or component time. The fitting on the left side of the item - is it a tube for fluid?

More info...

http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-05CVE-Chaser.htm

 

[evangilder]

I was thinking it might be a Hobbs, or something similar. I'm just not familiar with the older ones.

 

[WriteStuff]

Thanks, FBJ. Not a tube...just a simple rotation rod that advances the numbers when you turn it.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Thanks, FBJ. Not a tube...just a simple rotation rod that advances the numbers when you turn it.

Yep - some type of Hobbs meter. Is there a small switch on the instrument itself to reset the numbers?

 

[WriteStuff]

No switch. Any guesses what this could have been in that would have been aboard an escort carrier in 1945 or is it too generic an instrument to say?

 

[Catch22]

HMS Chaser aircraft carrier profile. Aircraft Carrier Database of the Fleet Air Arm Archive 1939-1945

Well, according to the FAA archive, the only squadron on the Chaser in 1945 was 899, which flew Seafires, which doesn't make any sense if the piece was made in the US. There WERE Wildcats based on it before, but that was in early 1944, so I can't see any of the Wildcats sitting on the carrier for over a year and a half.

 

[Stitch]

Could it be a round counter for an aircraft's cannon or mg's, in particular a Wildcat's? It looks similar to a meter I've seen on an A-37 Dragonfly that counted the rounds expended by the 7.62mm minigun it had in the nose.

 

[Matt308]

Not with 5 digits.