Radar equipment power connector?

My visit to Duxford did not help make any progress on item #31 which might (or might not) be related to a gun turret. A close look at the rear turret did not reveal anything looking like the piece that has been found, but it was not really possible to get a good view of the interior through the canopy. The mid-upper and front turrets were, of course, not accessible from ground level. In the absence of any further responses on the thread, this piece will therefore probably remain unidentified.

However a chat with the two enthusiastic radio hams manning the Duxford Radio Society hut proved very helpful.

They were of the view that item #32 was almost certainly not related to multi-pinned radio circuits, but was much more likely to be a radar equipment connection with a power cable socket. This is consistent with WV-903’s view that it is a power connection of some sort. However, they did not recognise it as being part of the Gee or H2S equipment. Looking through all my AP diagrams of installations, the only one showing items referenced 10AB is for H2S where there were two: a junction box looking more complex than our piece, and the scanner itself (10AB/1369). A connector from the transmitter to the scanner is pictured in the diagram which bears a striking similarity to item #32 (see attached picture). This would almost certainly have had an Air Ministry reference 10AB, but it is not separately identified on the diagram.

The Air Ministry publication SD0296(1) dated November 1943 provides details of the ARI.5153 equipment: power unit; switch unit; waveform generator; modulator; transmitter-receiver; receiver; indicating unit; and control unit. It says that the following equipment was part of ARI.5153, but was usually permanently fitted to the aircraft: junction box; generator; control panel; aerial system; connector; and scanning unit.

ED908 first saw operational service with 83 Sqn in May 1943 and would probably have been equipped with H2S, Mk.II, before being transferred to NTU-PFF in November 1943 and fitted with Oboe. Some of the “permanent” H2S fittings might well have remained in place in the aircraft and, if this was so, item #32 could be one of the power connections, possibly to the scanner. Unless anyone knows anything more about a Type 25 Junction box with a Type W205 plug and a Type W264 socket, we have probably reached the end of the road on this one.

That’s brilliant Derbyhaven – very many thanks. We have a positive identification even without the numbers.

I presume the reason that you have this in your museum is that it might have been used by the Fairey Barracudas operating from Ronaldsway during the war?

Thanks again.

………………

In response to your added question my bits, from memory, were about 1 inch by 2 inches!!!!

Derbyhaven, that’s great – many thanks. What I am looking for is a close-up picture with which to match my pieces. Is that possible please?

The best piece to view is on the right centre. It certainly looks like the edge of our pieces, unlike the earlier picture I posted. A bit more research on part numbers is required!! Many thanks indeed.

………………..

I have checked and find that the Air Ministry number for the Aerial Loop Type 3 as shown in AP1186 is 10B/10594 – just an extra digit to your reference. We seem to be on the right track.

Do your pieces have the number 10B/169 on the short edge?

Thanks turretboy. I have only the photograph, not the piece itself. I will enquire from France.

Thanks, Peter. So somewhere around the point circled then?

Thanks very much Hindenburg. A bit difficult finding a photograph to illustrate what you have described. Have I circled the right bit on the attached?

Some identified items: 4 – tip of propeller blade

It seems as if there is now unlikely to be any further help in trying to obtain positive confirmation of the radio/radar pieces, with the possible exception of a visit to the Reading Room at the RAF Hendon Museum. That will be for another day.

It is time for another of my occasional postings on identified items.

28.
A piece found late last year is something our French friends have been hoping to find from the outset. We have part of a propeller blade, thrown some distance by its momentum from the main area of wreckage. It is the tip of the early type of de Havilland “needle-blade” propeller (as distinct from the later “paddle-blade” shape). To get an idea of size, it has been placed on a sheet of A4 paper, and it is pictured from both sides. The complete blade is about 6 feet in length, and so we have about one sixth of it, as indicated in the small red square in the attached picture of ED908’s replacement aircraft PB179, 60-Z. Traces of yellow paint on the tip are just about discernible in the attached pictures.

Now that a second propeller pitch gear has been found, hopes may be rising that a bit more of one of the blades may come to light. When so much that has been discovered is just broken fragments, it is amazing that two intact pitch gears have been found. It seems as if the propeller assembly from one of the engines must have sheared off on impact and been thrown some distance, breaking up in the process.

At this point, a little more background information may be helpful. The port wing had broken off in the air after the explosion, and was seen to fall some distance away. All that remains to be found around the crash site will therefore be from the starboard wing. One engine is known to have fallen clear of the aircraft onto a nearby lane (and removed with the rest of the fuselage during the war), and so the search in the forest seems likely to be confined to what is left from just one engine – a needle-blade in the undergrowth! And perhaps the third pitch gear?

31.
Also found recently is the second item attached. It is pictured from both sides: the detail is not as clear as desirable, but it has a flanged top and is clearly broken on the left and the right. This was found quite some distance from the main area of wreckage, not far from the TI casings, but nearer to a track on the edge of the forest, and there must be some doubt as to whether it is, in fact, something from the aircraft – but if not, how did it get there? A bit of a forlorn hope, but if anybody recognises its distinctive arched shape, please let me know.