Warbird Information Exchange

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

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

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

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.

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Land of the free because of the brave

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

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

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....

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.

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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

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.

_________________
The Wings Over New Zealand Forum http://rnzaf.proboards.com

The Wings Over New Zealand Show http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZ_Show.html

Wings Over Cambridge http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz

Can't go past this book


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

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

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Disclaimer: Photo discription, original photographer and/or original web source credit unknown unless otherwise noted.

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.