Info required on SOE dropping containers for resistance

Tis indeed an Avenger.
The aircraft in the background are interesting Red Herrings as the photo was taken at the AFEE airfield at Sherburn in Elmet rather than a FAA airfield. The Wildcat was also evaluated for carriage of CLEs. Did the Fleet Air Arm ever conduct supply drop operations? The Swordfish are products of Blackburn’s factory at Sherburn.

Nice one. That undercarriage leg should be a give-away, but….Bermuda? Avenger?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]249589[/ATTACH]
Just a little bit of fun. Here are four CLE MkIII containers in a bomb bay, but what’s the aircraft type?

Hi

These pages from AP 2453, don’t know if this is any help – I only have these 6 pages – there may be more in the full thing (one copy at the RAFM)?

James

My father painted this for a veteran of DOE Operations. Unfortunately he lost the contact details and was never able to give it to him.

There are pics showing these containers in Halifax wing bays IIRC.

Strictly speaking, the bombbays of the aircraft you mention were designed around the 2000lb SAP bomb: not sure about the Whitley but you can add the Hampden and Stirling. The Manchester was also required to take the airborne torpedo; the HP 56 which became the HP 57 Halifax was allowed to escape this constraint which may explain the deeper bombbay of the Manchester/Lancaster.

However as the key dimension in this discussion is the width, the 500lb and 2000lb were the same in this particular. The CLE container appears to be closer in length to the 2000lb than the 500lb. As the
Halifax wing bays could take the 500lb or the CLE, but not the 2000lb, perhaps the difference is moot.

These containers look similar to the ones carried by Nimrods, when acting as S.A.R. cover for other aircraft deployments overseas, (and overland).

There was also a version they carried when shadowing Royal VIP flights around the world.

I know becaue I fitted them into the Nimrod’s bombay, as part of the specialist S.A.R. load.

IIRC the Nimrod fleet called them CLE or Container Land Equipment having conveniently forgotten that originally CLE stood for Central Landing Establishment (which disappeared in 1941). The RAF still drop a parachute store called the SEAC pack, not realising that it is so named after its original use dropping stores to the Chindits who were part of the South East Asia Command. In the world of airdrop, if its not broke, don’t fix it……… But you can change the meaning of the name.

What was in there back then? Some crown and Corgi food?

These containers look similar to the ones carried by Nimrods, when acting as S.A.R. cover for other aircraft deployments overseas, (and overland).

There was also a version they carried when shadowing Royal VIP flights around the world.

I know becaue I fitted them into the Nimrod’s bombay, as part of the specialist S.A.R. load.

The SOE designed several of their own containers (your staked drums and long rods are those) which differed from the CLE containers designed for the Airborne Forces.
However all (SOE and CLE) the containers were designed to fit in the space taken by the 500lb GP bomb because that’s what the designers of the Whitley, Wellington, Halifax…. you get the idea, based the design of their bomb bays on.
The CLE Mk I has a cylindrical top and a D shaped bottom half. The CLE Mk III was uniformly cylindrical, and incidentally was still in service with the RAF Nimrod fleet up to their grounding. There were subtle changes to the CLE containers during their lives, changes to how the parachute was attached and changes to the crash head. There were also a number of location devices which could be attached to help in finding them CLE also produced some square section containers the Types E and F specifically for the carriage of radios.
The MkVb was the pre war container used for Army Co-op operations mostly seen in photos of Lysanders, it was found to be too small to carry weapons and so the CLE designed is own. The MkVb was in service alongside a fabric harness system, the Mk VI, which could be used to drop ammunition boxes or crates of odd sizes and being more adaptable than a metal container it was also adopted for use on the Airborne Forces Pannier (Wicker basket). A variation of this harness system is still doing the same job in the RAF to this day!

Cees, PM me if you want specific details of these containers, for as you can tell its a subject I will happily bore for England about.

Are they actually CLE containers? There was also the MkVB container which had a more hemispherical domed end on it plus some specialised containers for specific loads.

Thanks very much,
Just what the doctor ordered.

Does this help?

https://paradata.org.uk/content/container-light-equipment-cle