RAF emergency ration tin.

He was telling you the truth, the knife has no wooden handles on it, one blade is a can opener, one a knife and it has a flat screwdriver on the end, still use them in ejection seats, have mine in my toolkit at work 🙂

Almost but not quite, mine has the same shape as the 2-piece but the bottle opener is on the end of the blade!

I’ll photo it and post it up in a separate thread.

Area

Your map shows the the main servicing hangers,further to the south west was another hanger mainly corrugated iron type and next to it was a copse of trees in which there were air raid shelters.that should be a good area to look.Google co-ords are 52degs 16.17N &03degs29mins E.You will see that the hanger is long gone and overgrown but the flight line office appears to be there,many a good p..was had there at the end of the students course!At the south west end of the runway was a fire dump which had a couple of vampires and later the fuselage of a Valleta that turned up and was full of old spares mainly old gennys and starter motors and other stuff so maybe bits of that still buried there.

Slightly related to the above question, was there an emergency pack in the 50s/60s that contained a stripped down (i.e. no fancy bits on the handle) foldable combi knife/bottle opener?

I only ask because when I were a nipper I was given one by an ex-RAF pilot who told me that’s where it came from (I still have it). He also gave me a small box of weatherproof matches (the heads were covered in wax), saying it was from the same source. Was he pulling my leg?

He was telling you the truth, the knife has no wooden handles on it, one blade is a can opener, one a knife and it has a flat screwdriver on the end, still use them in ejection seats, have mine in my toolkit at work 🙂

you can see it here under

2 Piece British Army Locking Clasp Knife

http://www.sheffieldknives.co.uk/acatalog/Military_Knives.html

They were and I think still are in the survival pack in an ejection seat, as the matches would have been. Though they do not have all the script on them.

Tell him to look around the air raid shelters next to the road at the west end of the camp!!We always threw old stuff amongst them!! If they are still there next to the hanger!!

Do you mean around here wl745,

All that area is now fenced off by the farmer leasing off the landowner which he has no access.

Most of the air raid shelters are bricked up much the same as the pill boxes.

Brian.

Slightly related to the above question, was there an emergency pack in the 50s/60s that contained a stripped down (i.e. no fancy bits on the handle) foldable combi knife/bottle opener?

I only ask because when I were a nipper I was given one by an ex-RAF pilot who told me that’s where it came from (I still have it). He also gave me a small box of weatherproof matches (the heads were covered in wax), saying it was from the same source. Was he pulling my leg?

Thanks for the replies chaps.

Night Reaper, thank you for the detailed contents.

As promised, the picture.

Brian.

Wondered where my packed lunch tin had gone… :rolleyes:

Rations, Mk III

Your tin is early 50s. Contents are malted milk tablets, chewing gum, barley sugar, energy tablets and waterproof bag.

look here

Tell him to look around the air raid shelters next to the road at the west end of the camp!!We always threw old stuff amongst them!! If they are still there next to the hanger!!

He is always finding old things in the ditch’s and around the old accommodation blocks but thought it might be a souvenir for me.
Brian.

Souvenir?…sounds like dinner. 😀