# What WW2 hardware would you save?



## ddmckee54 (Aug 9, 2017)

I was going to put this under the Packard/Merlin thread, but then thought it might be better as a new thread.

One of the last posts in the Packard/Merlin thread mentioned that brand new Packard/Merlin parts were tossed into the scrap bin after VJ day.  If you could time travel back to that era, what would you try to save from the scrap-heap?

My short list, I won't boor you with the LONGGGG list:
P-61 Black Widow - There's only a handful left in the world, 4 I think, and of those only ONE is being restored to flying condition.
PT boat - Most of those poor darlin's just rotted away, they deserved better.
M-18 Hellcat - Just because it's so cool.  Literally, it's got an open turret so it was bloody cold for the crews in the winter - but it was FAST.

What WW2 era hardware would be on your list to save if you could?
Don


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## IceFyre13th (Aug 9, 2017)

P-40 War Hawk
P-38 Lightning
M1A2 Rifle, built at the International Harvester Factory


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## goldstar31 (Aug 9, 2017)

My little Boys Scouts axe for digging out German incendiary bombs, My father in laws's tin hat with FIRE stencilled on it, his service respirator and my late wife's Mickey Mouse gas mask. 

My RAF cap badge was slightly later but it went 'back to the Beaches of D Day on one of famous sling bags carried by the Waafs of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.  She had been a fighter controller and was now escorting her Army Husband back again.

The Memorial to those who served and died in my Squadron is recalled not only in 100 year Memorial at the National Arboretum. 
There's a seat for the weary now. The late daughter and late wife of a pair of RAF Goldstars wanted it to happen!

A different version of events, perhaps

Norm


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## Barnbikes (Aug 9, 2017)

Every Indian, Harley and BMW I could get my hands on. Motorcycles are easier to store than airplanes.

A lot of tracked vehicles were used during the war.


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## charlesfitton (Aug 10, 2017)

X craft

Say no more..


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## ShopShoe (Aug 10, 2017)

All of the above are good. I also think it is important to try to keep documentation on anything and everything. We're finding the "Old Timers" lost and the memories fading. I have some things from my Dad's time as a carrier pilot in WWII (F4U, F4F, TBF, trained on Texans, Stearmans, and Piper Cubs: At least he told me) but most of the context is lost. My Mother's Father was in the Lafayette Escadrille in WWI (Jennys) and all I have are some photos with date and location not known.

There was a PBS documentary about the work done in WWII to confuse the Germans with sound, radio transmissions, inflatable tanks and wooden planes, but were any of these things saved beyond photographs. I would like to see one of the 6x6 sound trucks with giant loudspeakers and wire-recording player that was used alongside one of those inflatable tanks.

Of course, there have been a lot of fights since that era and I hope things are being saved now and documented.

BTW - something I never knew existed until I visited Pearl Harbor is the submarine museum there. It's worth seeing and features a lot of WWII submarine stuff.


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## abby (Aug 11, 2017)

3 uncles !


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## ddmckee54 (Aug 11, 2017)

Abby, my condolences.

A great many people lost loved ones in that war.  I didn't intend this thread to re-open old wounds, but I now can see how it would.

Sorry,
Don


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## abby (Aug 12, 2017)

Don my comment was tongue in cheek and no offense was taken , I wasn't born until after the war so I never met them .


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## MRA (Aug 12, 2017)

I was in Poland last year, and in one of the many museums I visited, I saw a German half-track which fell off a bridge into deep mud some time in the early 40s.  It had been pulled out in mid 90s, cleaned up, and it ran - though not understanding Polish, I don't know how much of a 'Trigger's Broom' it was (same broom all me life - 17 new heads, 12 new handles).  The joke was that German stuff was good, but their battery technology was not so hot as it would not take a charge and they needed jump leads...  

Worth mentioning (as seems important after the last two posts) that Poland lost something like 17% of its total population during the war.  That's 1 in 6 of everybody.


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## lohring (Aug 13, 2017)

A Monarch 10ee as well as the other manual machine tools that made those planes and engines.  I understand that there are quite a few radioactive Monarch lathes left from plutonium production buried on the Hanford reservation.  Most of the companies (but not Monarch) that made those manual machines are long gone in the US, but their tradition of excellence ts still carried on in other parts of the world.

Lohring Miller


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## davidyat (Aug 14, 2017)

A B-24 Liberator, a Norden Bombsight, an M1 Garand and a Bomber Crewmember's flight suit. My Dad was a top turret gunner on a B-24, shot down over Germany and was a Prisoner of War for 15 months. I've always had the utmost respect for their generation and what these young men and women did. You don't see that kind of devotion these days.

David


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## John47 (Aug 14, 2017)

A Vickers machine gun and the ability (meaning a change in the English gun laws) to shoot it. 


But one of these is fun too:-

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46-RYbMg6mU[/ame]


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## Entropy455 (Jul 24, 2018)

I saved this one - a Continental W670. It's actually 668 cubic inches. They were used during WWII within Navy aircraft, Sherman tanks, amphibious landing crafts, and also Navy G-Class blimps (the US navy actually had blimps. . .) This particular engine was removed from a surplus pacific-theater amphibious landing craft (one that made it home).


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## Henry (Jul 25, 2018)

I will love to play with an 8.8 FLAK or the anti tank version.


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## goldstar31 (Jul 25, 2018)

The news broke yesterday and for the 'dreamers' here there is the chance of a bit of real history.
RAF Scampton is going up for sale.

Need I say more?

N


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## cox24711 (Jul 25, 2018)

Rolls Royce Crecy. 
Westland Whirlwind
CAC Kangaroo
And all the aircraft that were scrapped at Oakey (60 km west of Brisbane Queensland Aus), Some 553 Spitfires , Kittyhawks, Mustangs and Boomerangs! 
there have been many reports of aircrafts being buried in crates in old mines, with multiple witnesses aerial photographs and lots more evidence (got to https://brokenwings.com.au/ to find out more) they just need the money to make things happen!


and all the aircraft that were dumped 200 metres of water off the Sunshine Coast in 1946, north 100km of Brisbane (where I live). Scores of Voight-Sikorsky F4U-1D Corsairs, F6F Hellcats, a Fairy Barracuda, at least 12 Seafires, several TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, AT6 Harvards and Supermarine Otter seaplanes were dumped. 9 shiploads of aircraft were dumped with about 70 to 100 in each shipload.
read more here https://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/[email protected]


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## gmaf (Jul 25, 2018)

My dad.


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## ALCO-jim (Jul 25, 2018)

The French railcar that the WWI treaty of Vercelli was signed.  The Germans towed it to Berlin at the beginning of the war.  When it was obvious they were going to be over run, the car was blown up.  (Along with Hitler's private train.)

And, I wish someone saved the giant German Gustav railgun.  80 cm (31.5 in.)  Twice as big as a battleship gun.  Again, destroyed when the gun was about to be abandoned and over run.


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## blighty (Jul 26, 2018)

P51D...... and any metal made pre atomic age. apparently its worth a bit of money nowadays.


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## kadora (Jul 26, 2018)

All innocent victims
Hardware ? Russian sniper rifle.


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## cliff20 (Jul 28, 2018)

And interesting thread I never thought I'd see.  Quite a return response too.
I collect old books, but mostly in ebooks, simply due to the storage problem.  Not bragging, but I have about 9,000 of them on old technology, and probably the largest library outside of NASA on ramjet engine development and design.  Also old machining books from back as far as I can find, some dating from the Civil War.  Engine design of all types back into the 1870's, and a bunch of other subject matter my curiosity has taken me over the last 75 years.  
I offer a few suggestions to those who may be so inclined as I.  Save the how to books, the old physics and chemistry books, and those on any subject your interested in, preferably in PDF form.  The actual book would be good, but there is the storage problem.  Plus the loss of the book through some disaster, or your collection being sold off at the end of your life for penny's on the dollar.  
Old books written before the computer age were written in a simpler form, to a broader audience, and at times were works of art in the drawings.
I contacted the Smithsonian Institute several years ago, as I am the last of my line, and what they could use.
I was informed that I might consider making a time capsule that would be opened in say 100 to 150 years.
I was told much to my amazement that paper (acid free), and microfilm are the best archive substances around.  Plastic's should never be used, as they turn to powder with time, and then attack other things.  Anything like CD disks will be unreadable 25 years in the future.  Due to software changes, and decay of the disk, or recording tape.  To say nothing of computer advances where the computers no longer can read the previous software language.  (Find a computer that can read BASIC.)   
Microfilm on the other hand I was told, can be read with a magnifying glass in a pinch, and if properly developed, processed, and stored, will last a projected 10,000 years.  Acid free paper, again properly stored, is good for 2,500 years or more.  
The thing is, moisture, and various things that we don't notice normally, if isolated from the outside world, will sometimes attack one another over time.  Like leather, and the tanning acid it contains, and the solvents in plastics and rubber, etc.  
I was also told to consider the following, #1 enclose at least a Chinese and Spanish dictionary for translation from English.  
#2 Not to consider necessarily that the future will be better than it is today.  Or more advanced.  Things may get worse at some future date for one reason or another.
This last one hit a cord with me, and how valuable some of these books on past technology and science could be if that were to happen.  
Most time capsules are lost over time.  Something on the order of 90%.  So there is a place in France that you can now register your time capsule, and where it is at.  DO NOT depend on others maintaining, or paying for storage of your time capsule.  
So what to do with it ?  I considered this for over a year, and finally one day it hit me as I drove by a cemetery.  Nobody messes with a cemetery.  No roads are built across it, houses, or buildings.  To do so requires contacting any possible relatives and getting permission for each plot.  In my case, the collection in paper form would be relatively large, so it occurred to me that a burial vault would be perfect.
Strong, water proof, made to last, and relatively cheap.  Just some food for thought to get the juices going.
As the conversation was ending I asked if Smithsonian would be interested in my parents letters to each other during WWII.  I was told no, that had "tons of them", with little academic interest in them.  Then she said, "It is a shame really.  During Vietnam the main family communications to each other was by tape recordings.  During the Gulf Wars it was cell phones and emails.  
Unlike the Civil War, which is highly documented in written personal letters, almost all of our current societies interaction will be on CD's, emails, or written on a word processor without a hardcopy.  We look for this present age to become the Modern Dark Ages in the future.  A hole in the history of our time, as technology advances into an area that erases itself with advancements, and leaves the past to crumble into dust, or to become unreadable.
So what to do ?  If you interested in something, and you feel it is good enough to save, hard copy it on acid free paper.  Take a look at some of the free, or not very expensive websites of free ebook  downloads.  Several items mentioned in this thread, like Allison Engines have extensive ebooks on it and other WWII aircraft and engines, such as SCRIBD. and others.  Once you've saved what you feel needs to be saved for your interest, consider that those in the future might also be interested as well.  Then you will have to decide what to do with it to pass it on.  That takes some serious thought.
Sorry guys, you hit a cord on that one.


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## don-tucker (Jul 29, 2018)

The SLR 7.62 rifle .I used to love shooting for my pay,it was so accurate.
Don


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## Timehunter (Jul 29, 2018)

Make records easy to access online for the Merchant Marines.
My dad was on Tanker ships duringWW2 and died when I was four in 1956.
I have his service records and ships he was on and would like to get certain Merchant Marine Tanker ships logs just to see where he was at certain points during his service and would be nice to see if anything was mentioned about him.
Been a few years since I checked but could not find anything without going to somewhere like Baltimore or...….and I live in Texas.
Guess I need to pull his records again and see if anything has changed online yet.


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## cliff20 (Jul 30, 2018)

Timehunter:

You didn't say what ship he was on, so this is as far as I got.  However, if there is anything there, this should get you started.  Good Luck.    http://www.usmm.org/contact.html

cliff20


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## Timehunter (Jul 30, 2018)

Cliff20, Thank you for the info but t looks like what I ran into before.
He, Lelldon Perry was a Marine Engineer working in the engine compartments of Merchant Marine Tankers. Not sure but might have become Ensign. He served on the S.S. Mobilight from June 23,1943 to September 15, 1944, then the S.S. Fort Fetterman  from April 7, 1945 to July 21, 1945. Then the S.S. A.P.Hill from 9-1-45 to 12-4-45. Then S.S. Fort Frederica from 4-10-47 to 6-3-47.
He later went to work for Shell Oil and him and a few others went to Bagdad, Iraq to help get the Dura Refinery going. We were supposed to move there, Mother and 3 sisters, one brother and I. Dad had us a home ready and everything, also everything was either sold or packed and we were one day from leaving and moving there when we got the telegram that he had died. He was working late one night and on the way driving home he hit a government bus that was stopped in the middle of the road on the other side of an unlit overpass.
Since it was a government buss and he was a foreigner no one wanted to do anything about it but sweep it under the rug. 
So Mom didn't get squat.
She was a nurse for Shell Refinery then later became a drug counselor where she was attacked by a patient and disabled. Didn't get anything but a hard time for that also. In the 80's she went in the hospital for an ovarian cyst operation and the doctor messed up and she went into a coma between the operating room and recovery room. She never recovered and why we did not sue him or the hospital,,I don't know.
Dang, I never wrote this down like this and looked at it/ You just play the cards you are dealt and go on the best you can.
Don't know if I should delete this whole posting, but...…
If you or anyone else has any info on those ships and where they were during those time periods, I would be thankful for the information.
GP


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## cliff20 (Jul 31, 2018)

Timehunter said:


> Cliff20, Thank you for the info but t looks like what I ran into before.
> He, Lelldon Perry was a Marine Engineer working in the engine compartments of Merchant Marine Tankers. Not sure but might have become Ensign. He served on the S.S. Mobilight from June 23,1943 to September 15, 1944, then the S.S. Fort Fetterman  from April 7, 1945 to July 21, 1945. Then the S.S. A.P.Hill from 9-1-45 to 12-4-45. Then S.S. Fort Frederica from 4-10-47 to 6-3-
> 
> Timehunter:
> ...


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## Timehunter (Aug 2, 2018)

I am guessing that when he was on the S.S. A.P.Hill and S.S Fort Frederica they were keeping all the ships fueled that were bringing all the troops home so probably the only thing to worry about are underwater mines that had not been cleared yet.


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## mayhugh1 (Sep 28, 2018)

Test


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## goldstar31 (Sep 28, 2018)

I would like a pair of ear defenders- made out of wood, that I didn't get!

I would like to SEE the RAF medical record book- that I supplied, incidentally, that the War Pensions Agency claims to possess.

Ex Corporal Atkinson, N, RAF Hendon


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