British Ordnance Collectors Network
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- Thread starter Burney Davis
- Start date
Thanks for that Tomsk, but do you know for which gun or have a model designation?
That certainly appears to be the item. Many thanks
Ok... this is an air dropped flare simulator. They were developed (I think) for D Day and stayed in store for years after...
There were several types, this one holds a signal cartridge and (i think) a time pencil.. the idea was that you dropped them forward of the battlefield where they stuck in the ground and, some time later, would fire flares into the air to simulate troop movements and create a diversion. I think you could drop them down the flare ejector on some aircraft types..
There were others such as the machine gun simulator which was basically a board dropped by parachute with detonators linked by fuze instantaneous screwed on to it set off by a time pencil to simulate a burst of MG fire, again at some known time in the future!
The commonly known one was the "Rupert" which was a dummy hessian paratrooper and which featured in "The longest day"..
These were in service up to the 80s where they were (very occasionally as few knew about them) used for training. They may also have featured in "Speshul People" activities, but I could not of course speculate on this...!
There were several types, this one holds a signal cartridge and (i think) a time pencil.. the idea was that you dropped them forward of the battlefield where they stuck in the ground and, some time later, would fire flares into the air to simulate troop movements and create a diversion. I think you could drop them down the flare ejector on some aircraft types..
There were others such as the machine gun simulator which was basically a board dropped by parachute with detonators linked by fuze instantaneous screwed on to it set off by a time pencil to simulate a burst of MG fire, again at some known time in the future!
The commonly known one was the "Rupert" which was a dummy hessian paratrooper and which featured in "The longest day"..
These were in service up to the 80s where they were (very occasionally as few knew about them) used for training. They may also have featured in "Speshul People" activities, but I could not of course speculate on this...!
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