Arabella-Cox
March 29, 2008 at 10:49 am

Two More Parts to ID from Lancaster PB669

Hi all,

As I posted a week or so ago, I came by some parts from the crash of PB669.

Going by some of the parts that came in the collection, I would guess that this first bit is a T-Piece from the oxygen supply. Can someone confirm this for me? The head of the ‘T’ is stamped :

‘MK IIIA’
‘106D/16?’

And the second part I’d like to identify is this buckle of some description :

I cant pretend to be knowledgable about that sort of thing by any stretch of the imagination, but Im sure the marking on it will mean something to somebody.

Many thanks for any help.

If youre interested, the story behind these items is as follows.

PB669 took off from Warboys on a navigational training flight at 1040hrs 11/03/45. At 1245 the aircraft contacted base on HF and had no messages to pass. At 1310 the aircraft dived with power on into the ground at Spaldwick, all eight crew being killed (two Navs on board). No cause was ever attributed to the crash. The site was excavated in 1994.

Thanks for any help,

Regards,

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By: Arabella-Cox - 30th March 2008 at 21:01

Many thanks to all, your help is much appreciated.

Best Regards,

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By: bazv - 29th March 2008 at 21:09

Thanks guys.

Here is the best photo I can get at the moment.

Looks to me the stamp has:

9 o’clock : M
12 o’clock : W
3 o’clock : S
6 o’clock : 2

Does that shed any light?

Thanks again,

S.

Hi S
A long shot but my guess would be Motor Wheel Service
The company was formed in 1927 and still manufactures wire wheels etc,so quite possible they would have taken on sub assemblies in ww2
Funnily enough their workshop moved to Langley berks 10 years ago,not far from old Hawker factory.

so perhaps the buckle was manufactured by Motor Wheel Service Ltd and checked for drawing conformity by their inspector No 2.

cheers baz

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By: Peter - 29th March 2008 at 18:11

Interesting, that makes it a Canadian manufactured part in a British built airframe.

I imagine the swapping of parts happened a fair bit.

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By: Arabella-Cox - 29th March 2008 at 12:25

‘MK IIIA’
‘106D/16?’

Interesting, that makes it a Canadian manufactured part in a British built airframe.

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By: Arabella-Cox - 29th March 2008 at 12:25

I would think these are the initials of the company who made the buckles and supplied them to the parachute company. I have checked mine which is stamped GKN….I suspect G K Nettlefold?

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By: Arabella-Cox - 29th March 2008 at 12:21

Thanks guys.

Here is the best photo I can get at the moment.

Looks to me the stamp has:

9 o’clock : M
12 o’clock : W
3 o’clock : S
6 o’clock : 2

Does that shed any light?

Thanks again,

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By: bazv - 29th March 2008 at 11:02

Hi S
The buckle stamp looks like it could be an inspection stamp.
The letters are usually the company name (ie HA= Hawker Aircraft) and the numbers might be the inspectors personal company inspection ID.
Does it read MW88 ?

cheers baz

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By: Arabella-Cox - 29th March 2008 at 10:57

Oxygen and parachute.