ww2 aircrew survival gear

[battle]

Hi all , i am trying to put together a display of all the survival gear that would be found in the life raft stowage area on the B24 Lib , has anyone got a list of what should be in there.

I have got the gibson girl transmitter ( need a winder for it ) and the box kite , would like to get hold of the raft and all the other gear , can anyone here help.

cheers dave

debdavid@aapt.net.au

[Liberator]

Try ebay . Otherwise i have resources and contacts if you need.

[battle]

Hi anyone out there have a list of equipment that would be in the life raft stowage , just need a list so i know what i am looking for.

cheers dave

[Mudge]

Don't have a list but if you go to:
www.aotp.com (Armies of the Past)
I'm sure you'll find a lot of the items you're gonna' need.

Mudge the researcher

If you haven't already, that is.

[shrike]

You'll also have to think about where and when. Survival gear at the end of the war was much more extensive than at the beginning. Different theatres might have a different mix of equipment depending on local conditions

[Lynn Allen]

In the book Unbroken, the author who was on a B-24 in the pacific, spent a lot of time in a raft and he talks about what all they had in them. You might have something to start with there....

[Dave Homewood]

I used to pack and maintain life rafts as one of my many duties in the RNZAF. I doubt much would have been different between the 1940's and the 1990's when I was involved, and so some of the items that came with the multi-person rafts included:
- a bellows pump - for baling water out of the raft
- a paynter drogue - this kept the raft turned the right way in the current so that the people in it were less exposed - not sure if the open top rafts of WWII worried about that
- sun hats and sun protection - not sure if the WWII rafts carried this
- tinned rations and water
- tinned cigarettes!! These were removed from all RNZAF rafts approx 1992
- sea marker dye (I know the WWII rafts had this)
- heliograph for signalling - very important and would have been in the WWII kits I'm sure
- a fishing kit with hooks and line
- a pack saw
- we still used the same Gibson Girl radios that had been in WWII service and as well as a collapsable box kites ours also had a hydrogen generator that when you put it in the water it extracted hydrogen from the h2o, and you could fill a weather balloon with it, tied to your aerial and for use like the kite when there was no wind. I assume this was also around in WWII?
- We also had a raft knife in the kits, which had no point and the cutting edge was curved so if dropped it didn't puncture the raft, but I think these were more modern than WWII. They were mainly for cutting rope/cord. Crew probably had their own aircrew knives back then anyway (as did our aircrew in the modern era too in some cases).
- Ours also had salt water imersion strobe lights, they were powered by getting wet, but I think that is also postwar, surely.

I don't know if any of theis is useful to you.

[battle]

Hi all thank you for all your replies , all are useful , what i am aiming for is a late ww2 complete life raft with equipment which would have being pulled of a RAAF B24 Lib , i have started a small museum collection focussing on ww2 aircrew equipment for training , combat and rescue.

If anyone has any more info keep it coming .

thanks dave

[Dave Homewood]

Something I forgot was in our raft survival packs was also waterproof matches (mainly for the cigarettes, survival was secondary, haha). And also little rocket flares. They were a little bigger than a pen in diameter and you pulled a little lanyard and it fired a pyro a bit like a mini skyrocket on Guy Fawkes day.

I don't actually know if such rocket pyros were around in WWII but I'm sure they would have had a Verey pistol and flares of some sort.

[CDF]

Hi all , i am trying to put together a display of all the survival gear that would be found in the life raft stowage area on the B24 Lib , has anyone got a list of what should be in there.

I have got the gibson girl transmitter ( need a winder for it ) and the box kite , would like to get hold of the raft and all the other gear , can anyone here help.

cheers dave

debdavid@aapt.net.au

Can't go past this book

"United States Combat Aircrew Survival Equipment: World War II to the Present- A reference guide for collectors; By Breuninger. A detailed study of United States Air Force, Army, Army Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aircrew survival equipment. Items covered are: survival vests and leggings, life preservers, ejection seat survival kits, and personal survival items like flares and first aid kits. Tag and label information is provided. Size 8.5"" x 11"". Softcover. 208 pages. 170+ b/w photos, drawings."

http://flighthelmet.com/mm5/merchant.mv ... _Code=MISC

and try Hayes
http://www.hayesotoupalik.com/U.S.%20Su ... 0Items.htm

[Liberator]

There are several US WW2 flightgear books as well that and others use as reference guides ....which are highly useful and detail everything used by USAAF and USN including the B-24 crews.