Anyway Graham, whilst you were wasting time drinking I was out researching…and finally managed to track down DB’s crashed Spitfire.
History again proved wrong, with no sign of a missing tail section.

Remarkably good condition a superb find Andy was his missing leg still in the Cockpit?

There is the main casting, which incorporates the curved piece to receive the screen, and then there is a thin alloy shaped piece held in by four (I think?) brass screws. In effect, this helps hold the reflector screen by creating the “lip” for it to sit on. There is then a horseshoe shaped strip on the outside that fastens it all together. Does that make sense?

Anyway, the Downland Aviation repros incorporate all of that faithfully although in the case of your gunsight it is clearly original anyway.

A very nice piece indeed!

That all makes perfect sence thankyou, will go out to my shed tomorrow and look the Downland pieces, i was sure they did that all in one piece with the horseshoe on the outside holding the glass in. As I said i stand to be corrected the Downland repros pieces are very good.
Having had a closer look the inner piece which forms the lip feels like Bakolite.
Its actually one of the pair I found at Shoreham in a box of jet parts all those years ago and always regretted selling, now i have it back. 🙂

Thinking back to the one you and I inspected at Whitwick, I got the impression that the top casting was in fact a machined piece, i.e. not cast at all. It had a very smooth surface, iirc, whereas the one in your pic looks to be sand cast (an engineer can step in and correct me here!).

It’s a lovely piece Graham, and it’s got me wondering how many times Section References were changed about. By the end of the war, Ref. 7A would indicate a Bren Gun spare but I doubt that sight would fit on one!

Hello Air Min

Reference numbers are a nightmare I have been looking at them for years and still dont understand most of them, why didnt we use a system like the Germans, I cant to profess to know much about German stuff but from what i have seen you can ID most parts to the individual aircraft type.
I guess its like learning English we have many uses for a single word.
I have to say I would be totally lost without your ref manuals they are as close as I get to reading a Bible:diablo:
Back to that gunsight you could be right it may have been turned, apart from the perpex sighting glass and the fixings it just didnt feel or look right, it seems its almost impossible to get a perfect match in finish, the great thing is the bases all always original which give the tops away.:)

They aren’t guns, thats for sure, think they are gun cameras.

Cheers, Huw:)

within the prop arc surely this would obscure the image and why paint it red?

Interesting, indeed!

What type of reflector screen? Cannot see the srcreen bracket. Is it the rectangular or oval type?

Hello Andy

Here are a couple more pictures although i am afraid they dont help much. From the dates recieved see comments under, seems most likely this aircraft went down in 43 or 44, not sure when the Ace maker giro replaced the reflector ? this may give a clue.

I will TRY TO KNOW WHAN THOSE FLAN HAVE BEEN BUILT BUT YOU YOU
KNOW ST JOIN DE BRUNVAL WAS A PLACE WHERE IN 1942 A BRITISH
COMMANDO SUCCEDED TEKE SOME IMPORTANT SPARE PART OF A GERMAN RADAR.

SO I AM SURE THIS WAS AFTER THIS DATE 1943 1944 THE GERMAN
DIVISION WAS 17 LUFT DIVISION

THOSE BUNKER AVE BEEN USED UNTIL JULLY 1944