Spitfire redux: The WWII guns firing after 70 years buried in peat - BBC News
Printable View
Interesting to see it fired with a pneumatic solenoid.
I have seen pictures of a .303 BSA MKII Browning converted for land use. It had spade grips was mounted on a tripod. Haven’t been able to find any details so far.
Amazing and touching story.
There is a comparable story on this side of the pond -- WWII Wildcat fighters being fished out of Lake Michigan;
One is on display in Chicago's O'Hare airport and is beautifully displayed:
http://www.airclassicsmuseum.org/Schools/Butch%20O'Hare%20Story.htm
Several years ago the lost squadron was exhumed from the ice in Greenland. Glacier Girl is one of the P-38s that has been resurrected.
http://www.damninteresting.com/exhum...-glacier-girl/
And for those Spitfire fans, you may be happy to learn about the Pickled Spitfires in Burma:
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news..._206526-1.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkjcsLE-yF8
My dad was station on Naval Pier in Chicago and spent his lunch breaks watching flight ops on the USS Wolverine and the USS Sable, America's paddle-wheel aircraft carriers, as they plied Lake Michigan. The two ships were converted to train Naval aviators to trap onto and take off from aircraft carrier decks. My father watched as several aircraft either missed or over-ran the deck during his lunch breaks.
Bob
Thought this may be in the realms of the Spitfire story as well;
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...19745492,d.dGY
The story in full well worth the watch all of it I enjoyed it a true labour and resto project ~ Time Machine - The Hunt For The Lost Squadron pt 1 of 4 - YouTube
I have an early BSA MkII, the majority were MkII* guns. The air solanoids were a fighter wing fitting, hydraulic and hand fired were usually found in bombers. The Mk I was the Colt ANM2 initially purchased and I don't know of any that have survived.
Well if the P-38 Glacia Girl is valued at considerably more than 2 million the discovery of those Spitfires will be a great thing I wonder if Britain still has ownership of them considering they were never used...........be great to see them in the air again if possible.............
I never realized they actually found the spitfires! I thought it was just a bunch of hype but digging found nothing. I'm really glad you posted that link, thank you!Quote:
Originally Posted by Seaspriter
That is great. They got to try one out and fire a belt of ammo through it. I like the history and story that some guns can tell about things that were going on way back then.
Didn't they use a number of the aircraft machine guns with the British Commando teams "Long Range Desert Group", in North Africa during WWII when they were fighting the Germans. If I remember right the commandos used various vehicles to travel across the desert to raid German supply dumps and depots behind the enemy lines. But they used whatever they could get for machine guns, and weapons from various aircraft they salvaged in the desert. They did a American TV show series called the "Rat Patrol" based on the them too,
As far as I know, they didn't. What they thought were Spitfires in a crate turned out to be something else. The images even convinced some at BBMF but it was all a mistaken identity.Quote:
Originally Posted by garrettbragg12
Of course the may be hiding the truth......