British Ordnance Collectors Network
Join over 14,000 collectors of inert military ordnance. Get expert identification help for shells, fuzes, grenades, and more — plus access our classifieds marketplace and decades of archived knowledge. Free to register, takes seconds.
ID required
- 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...!
Last edited:
The item appears to be a descendant of "Bomb, Pintail Mk I", which, following a nomenclature change became "Simulator, Signal, A/B, No.1, Mk. I. There's no mention of it in Regulations for Army Ordnance Services Volume 4, Pamphlet No. 18. 1956. So presumably it had become obsolete before then. The item shown is "L" series which means its introduction was post '50 and appears to have a '64 manufacture date.
See here for Pintail photo - https://www.bocn.co.uk/threads/signal-pintail-mark-i.104866/
TimG
See here for Pintail photo - https://www.bocn.co.uk/threads/signal-pintail-mark-i.104866/
TimG
Last edited:
Great information as ever Tim, many thanks