What WW2 hardware would you save?

[ddmckee54]

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

 

[IceFyre13th]

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

 

[goldstar31]

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

 

[Barnbikes]

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.

 

[charlesfitton]

X craft

Say no more..

 

[ShopShoe]

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.

 

[abby]

3 uncles !

 

[ddmckee54]

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

 

[abby]

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 .

 

[MRA]

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.

 

[lohring]

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

 

[davidyat]

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

 

[John47]

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]

 

[Entropy455]

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).

 

[Henry]

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

 

[goldstar31]

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

 

[cox24711]

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]

 

[gmaf]

My dad.

 

[ALCO-jim]

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.

 

[blighty]

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