What Is The Most Amazing Find you Have Found At An Old Airbase??

I found a complete 303 Ammunition belt with around 30 live rounds in the bottom of a ditch at the former RAF North Killingholme. Before tht in the early 1970s a Mosquito fin and rudder were found propped up behind what was left of the Control tower, No idea what happened to that but plod took the ammo away

An old railway carriage dating back to the very beginning of the RAF. It was used for passenger transport during RNAS times, before then transitioning to transporting RAF personnel, before coming out of service in the early 1920s

Dr Strangelove, I don’t know how much you found about LAC Alderman. I’ve not found much. He entered service after March 1950 as a National Service entrant at Padgate, AIR 78 records him as Clarence John Alderman, though I can’t find a record of a birth in England, Wales, Scotland or the Isle of Man from 1925 to 1935 which come close to matching.

Thanks Alan, that’s 100% more info than I have managed to find on him 🙂

In the 1980’s I was stood at a burger van next to the former RAF Hemswell. The van owner told me about an old military ambulance in one of the sheds. On investigating, I found a near complete Austin K2 ambulance, minus front wheels. I contacted the site owners, agreed a purchase, but before I had chance to collect, someone had stripped it down to its chassis. Needless to say I was gutted!!!!!!:mad::mad:i
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[ATTACH]212862[/ATTACH] Bits from `Zenobia` (apart from the dials) which blew up on the outskirts Deenethorpe village in November 1943.Picked up in 1989.Here is a link to a newsreel of the crash.
http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//BHC_RTV/1943/12/13/BGU409100016/

Dr Strangelove, I don’t know how much you found about LAC Alderman. I’ve not found much. He entered service after March 1950 as a National Service entrant at Padgate, AIR 78 records him as Clarence John Alderman, though I can’t find a record of a birth in England, Wales, Scotland or the Isle of Man from 1925 to 1935 which come close to matching.

I trust they de-burred the edges.

Most likely they used hammers and cold chisels 🙂 Dont want a spark you see..

Found part of a 1938 newspaper in hangar ,

I was unpacking some aircraft parts a few years back & they were wrapped in newspaper. It turned out to be a Chicago newspaper & the front page headline was the German collapse at Stalingrad.
It was very brittle & falling apart, but I managed to save some parts of it that I put in a photo album.
The classified ad’s for *war work* were worded a lot differently than they would be today…

Not an airbase but an old `Rotor` radar station… had a 1942 Morris (morrison?) armoured car in the undergrowth outside.

I have only found a couple of small pieces of aircraft fuselage, one was at Lakenheath and the other was at Shepherds Grove, also found several bullets. Probably the most interesting stuff I found have been names and dates written in the concrete, the 92fis squadron badge and date also in the concrete and a tree at Knettishall with loads of names carved in the bark. Also found a load of footprints in part of the perimeter track at Eye airfield from when it was layed. Things like that make you think about the people involved one way or another in the war and not just the aircraft.

Narsarsuaq – BW1 airbase

While strolling around the open dump at BW1 some 20 years ago, looking for anything older than the last 40 years, the largest items was a couple of yellow GMC school buses.

From aeroplanes, the largest item visible then was the cabin of some not-so-small highwinged monoplane, maybe a Norseman or something like it. But the most interesting item by far was the easily recognizable ball-turret from a B17, pretty much complete except for the guns and some of the perspex (or what it is?).

One of the huge rims from a B29 was visible for many years at the end of the runway.

What I took as a wing from a Harvard was found in the shrubbery close to the Youth Hostel – I have pics of that on another harddrive, including some of a makers plate, if anyone can make a proper ID from that.

A Harvard that crashed on the Inland Ice near BW1 is being rebuilt in Denmark, by the way. Some find……:

http://www.texan-thepilotmaker.dk/index.php?id=1

If you care to babelfish the text, you will learn it is going to be a flyer – hydraulic tests are due to be done, though a lot of work still remains. All involved are skilled amateurs – though some are engineers – only working as time permits.

Jon

Revolver Found

Not found on an airfield, but a Webley MkVI revolver was found 2 weeks ago half buried in the grounds of Dover Castle. Believed to date from 1915-1923 but used during WW2. There is a picture of it on the Dover Castle facebook page.
Paul

The couple of urinals still standing at Grafton Underwood. A rare chance to pee in the footsteps of heroes. (so to speak)

Moggy

A bog-standard find though Moggy!!:rolleyes:

Parts discovered on old airfields

During my Presidency of the Moorabbin Air Museum a party of museum members did a four wheel drive trek through the Northern Territory. The stopped at the old wartime RAAF base at Coomalie Creek. Coomalie was a Beaufighter base during World War 2 and the boys searched through the scrub looking for parts. Incredibly they foumd several engine nacelle panels missing on Moorabbins Beaufighter. These panels were in excellent condition and when brought back to Melbourne were fitted to the beau with no difficulty whatsoever and they remain on the aircraft till this day.

Keith Gaff

Only last year at Halfpenny Green, while clearing the overflow car-park in preparation for the Easter Wings & Wheels, in the long grass alongside, we stumbled upon a World War Two spade grip ! We were too busy to give more than a cursory search for any more, so if you come to this year’s event on 31st March/1st April who knows……….

W4050 the prototype Mosquito.
To be fair I didn’t realise until years later it was the prototype. For a while it was stashed in bits in a blister hangar at Panshanger in the 50’s after the custodian was told to burn it. He hid it in various de Havilland properties until Walter Goldsmith wanted something to commemorate Salisbury Hall’s place in history.

After a spot of Googling it appears someone asked on another forum & a possible first name was suggested-

http://rafforum.activeboard.com/t28264899/looking-for/

Would be great if some of our finest on here got a result though 🙂

Maybe this bracelet I found on former RAF St Eval, engraved LAC Alderman 2497088 & marked ‘silver’. I found it stuck in the bitumen banding on one of the old pans.

(previously posted- http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=96594 )

Tried to trace the owner, but sadly got nowhere 🙁

What a very intersting find there! Surely there must be a way to trace that airman? Makes you wonder what happened??

Back in 1976 at Wellesbourne Mountford ( 22OTU ) I managed to save two large paintings on plasterboard, the day before the building was demolished.
After two years of research the artist was identified. He was a Sgt Soper, an American who joined the Canadian Air Force. I was delighted to find a picture of him at Kew

Perhaps more amusing than amazing. The ‘Karzi’ at Strauss strip, Darwin.

I trust they de-burred the edges. 🙂

Mark