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

[Flightpath]

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]

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

 

[Flightpath]

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]

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

 

[Aussie1001]

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

 

[Flightpath]

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]

WOW!!!

 

[Wildcat]

Awesome

 

[Wayne Little]

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

 

[Gnomey]

Excellent photo and collection Flightpath. Welcome to the forums.

 

[HoHun]

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]

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]

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

 

[lastwarrior]

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

 

[DOUGRD]

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]

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]

Cool. You have a nice collection.

DBII

 

[Lucky13]

Impressive!