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What is in my Father's notebook?

Started by Walks_At_Night, October 13, 2018, 06:20:43 PM

albrecht

We should start its own Jeopardy! thread, if needed.
Sorry for derailing the awesome thread WAN. Even though that is what happens at BG, often.  Mea culpa.

ItsOver

Quote from: albrecht on February 20, 2019, 04:24:43 PM
We should start its own Jeopardy! thread, if needed.
Sorry for derailing the awesome thread WAN. Even though that is what happens at BG, often.  Mea culpa.
I believe frequent derailments and hijackings are a Lee requirement.


Quote from: K_Dubb on February 20, 2019, 03:58:29 PM
Yeah but he acts like he knows.  No, I'm sorry, he must bear the full heat of my scorn.

Aha!   You are on Team Connery as well I see!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEghu90QJH4

Quote from: albrecht on February 20, 2019, 04:24:43 PM
We should start its own Jeopardy! thread, if needed.
Sorry for derailing the awesome thread WAN. Even though that is what happens at BG, often.  Mea culpa.

We are here to have fun after all.  Lord knows bellgab.com could use a healthy dose of fun these days.

So that left the Gray Ghost to deal with.    As we saw a few posts back some of the documentation indicated that an unpainted "Zinc"
shell with a red stripe is a HET-DI round.   That is Navy speak for High Explosive Tracer with Dark Ignition.     The high explosive portion
is self explanatory.  Tracers are shells that have a pyrotechnic composition to them that burns brightly and allows the gunner to follow the trajectory
of the shells towards the target.   They are quite bright at night and that is where the Dark Ignition comes in - those will not start glowing until about
100 yards from the gun, those helping to preserve night vision.


In this clip at about the 40 second mark you can see 20MM tracers in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKcSteqCEA

**Note the flares at the beginning of the clip.  When we get to Dad's combat record and we look into the invasion of Sicily the US Navy will encounter
a terrifying German weapon system for the first time.  A weapons system that will leverage flares dropped from high altitude.   

However, the Gray Ghost didn't have a red stripe.   It looked like it had a stripe or band of some sort at one time but that it had been removed.







The trail ran cold at this point.  The closest thing to I could find was a high explosive shell with pyrotechnics thrown in like a cherry on top.
Not something I would want to muck with when it was new and this baby was 77 years old................

Just realized how well some cut marks show up on my work bench and that my finger looks fat in those pictures.

Imagine my embarrassment.  :-[

K_Dubb

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 20, 2019, 08:05:39 PM
So that left the Gray Ghost to deal with.    As we saw a few posts back some of the documentation indicated that an unpainted "Zinc"
shell with a red stripe is a HET-DI round.   That is Navy speak for High Explosive Tracer with Dark Ignition.     The high explosive portion
is self explanatory.  Tracers are shells that have a pyrotechnic composition to them that burns brightly and allows the gunner to follow the trajectory
of the shells towards the target.   They are quite bright at night and that is where the Dark Ignition comes in - those will not start glowing until about
100 yards from the gun, those helping to preserve night vision.


In this clip at about the 40 second mark you can see 20MM tracers in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKcSteqCEA

**Note the flares at the beginning of the clip.  When we get to Dad's combat record and we look into the invasion of Sicily the US Navy will encounter
a terrifying German weapon system for the first time.  A weapons system that will leverage flares dropped from high altitude.   

0:35 guns blazing and flags flying be still my heart

albrecht

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 20, 2019, 08:14:49 PM
However, the Gray Ghost didn't have a red stripe.   It looked like it had a stripe or band of some sort at one time but that it had been removed.







The trail ran cold at this point.  The closest thing to I could find was a high explosive shell with pyrotechnics thrown in like a cherry on top.
Not something I would want to muck with when it was new and this baby was 77 years old................

We appreciate your interest in our agency. Unfortunately we have no open position at this time. We will keep your resume on file and we will contact you in the future if your services are needed. There is no reason for you to follow up with us. We wish you best in the future. 

Ms. Nancy Smythe 
Hand Models Worldwide, plc 
24 Manchester Square, Marylebone 
London,W1U 3BN 
U.K. 


Quote from: albrecht on February 21, 2019, 12:03:48 PM


We appreciate your interest in our agency. Unfortunately we have no open position at this time. We will keep your resume on file and we will contact you in the future if your services are needed. There is no reason for you to follow up with us. We wish you best in the future. 

Ms. Nancy Smythe 
Hand Models Worldwide, plc 
24 Manchester Square, Marylebone 
London,W1U 3BN 
U.K.

An another dream gig slips away.   :'(

So the Gray Ghost was an enigma.  However there were good signs.  As shown above there the bottom of the shell was smooth.  So
it didn't appear to be a tracer shell, so that was good news.  The fuze had no part number engraved on it and that was a good sign
according to the ammunition dudes I was working with.   More good news was that it seemed so much lighter than the Greenie Meanie.

So the plan was to carefully turn the fuze counter clockwise - if there was any resistance stop.   If it seemed to turn easy, keep going.
In the end it was no problem.  The fuze was just another inert cap and came right off.  A peek inside the shell itself showed that it was empty,
However there was just a tiny bit of yellowish residue on the sides and from what I have read this is probably Tetryl.

So I'm guess Dad must have removed the real fuze, dumped out the Tetryl and replaced the fuze with an inert one for his keepsake.




So here is a final look at the Greenie Meanie and the Gray Ghost assembled and ready for action!



K_Dubb

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 21, 2019, 08:26:11 PM
So here is a final look at the Greenie Meanie and the Gray Ghost assembled and ready for action!




They are almost elegant, after a fashion.  You must be very proud of them.  Thanks for letting us in on it!

Quote from: K_Dubb on February 21, 2019, 08:34:55 PM
They are almost elegant, after a fashion.  You must be very proud of them.  Thanks for letting us in on it!

It was quite the find.  Certainly didn't see that one coming.   Hope the thread liked this little detour.

Dad had a few other things that are lost or sadly are no more.   

Uniform - I once asked my Mom what happened to Dad's uniform.  Apparently over the years it just kind of fell apart and was mess so they just
               pitched it.  It is a shame they didn't keep his Torpedoman's Mate rating patch but I guess they didn't think about it.

Sea Bag - The story is that Dad continued to use it for many years after the war until it also was such a worn out mess that it was pitched.

Jacket -    One of my Uncle's was a gunner on a B-24 and he hooked Dad up with a leather bomber jacket with the sheep skin lining. 
                Apparently Dad loved the thing and wore it during the winters for many years after the war.   Eventually he gave it to our rubbish man
                who literally had a dozen kids and was schleping around in the winter with an inadequate coat.   Good deed but I wish I had that
                jacket!

Aircraft Identification Book - I remember this book vividly when I was a kid. It had an airplane locked in the beam of a search light on the cover and
               it had a write up on anything in the air at that time.  It was quite extensive.  US planes, Russian and British Planes, Italian, German, Japanese Planes,
               Dutch, French I even seem to recall Mexican.  It had silhouettes of the planes with a write on each.  I seem to recall that in the back there
               was even a section on contraptions called a Gyrocopter.   I don't know what became of this book.   I guess it was misplaced in a move
               somewhere along the line.  I'd like to find another one.
             

albrecht

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 21, 2019, 08:38:18 PM
It was quite the find.  Certainly didn't see that one coming.   Hope the thread liked this little detour.
It was enjoyable and interesting, the internet sleuthing and research and the updates on what new was found or figured out what it was! Nice job!

Page 57 is a mechanical drawing of the Oil Pump.


Page 57

Page 58 is a mechanical drawing of the tail and propeller portion of the Mark XV torpedo.

Page 58

These mechanical drawings in the notebook as of late have brought to mind an incident in High School drafting class. 
This was still pre-CAD days so our assignments were done the old way.  Paper. Pencil.  T-Square.  Our Industrial Arts teacher
was a nut job.  He had been in Vietnam and I do not think the experience did him any favors.  Oh he knew his business but
he was erratic and weird. 

I had finished a magnificent drawing of some doodad, widget or whatever.  It was really sharp.  I walked up to the nutjob's
desk and put it in his In Basket.  I turned around and headed back to my seat when I heard "Stop right there!".  I turned
around as the nutjob took my pièce de résistance, dropped it on the floor and stepped on it!   "This drawing is dirty Walks_At_Night.
That is minus 30% for turning in a dirty drawing".   Obviously, I was rather vocal in my protest at this injustice to which he replied:
"My titties bleed for you Mister Walks_At_Night.  They bleed for you".   At which point, I dropped a Jeff Spicoli "You Dick"
on the nutjob and was subsequently sent to the office.    The only time I can recall that happening.

Page 58 is a mechanical drawing of a Control Valve

Page 59

albrecht

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 25, 2019, 08:01:25 PM
Page 58 is a mechanical drawing of a Control Valve

Page 59

My teacher would've docked on the printing. He was anal about spacing and the letters being written in a certain way all on same lines etc. Bizarre.

Some of the Benson/Gleaves Class Destroyers carried a nasty anti-submarine weapon known as the Hedgehog.   These were rocket projected explosives
that would be fired out ahead of the ship and would drop in a circular pattern.   They would explode on contact as opposed to the depth charges
which exploded upon reaching a certain depth in the ocean.  They had some advantages over depth charges in that they would not mess up
the sonar contact - as they only exploded on contact, as these were fired out ahead of the Destroyer it made it harder for the submarine skipper to
evade as their was less warning time and of course if you saw one explode , you knew it was a hit and a single hit typically would finish the submarine.

Here are some pictures of the Hedgehog:




The first portion of this video is slow motion of a hedgehog attack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLPntkaiW0

Note the ships shown in the video are not Fleet Destroyers but their baby brothers - the Destroyer Escort which were used for ASW and Convoy escort duties
most of the time.

Quote from: albrecht on February 25, 2019, 08:09:26 PM
My teacher would've docked on the printing. He was anal about spacing and the letters being written in a certain way all on same lines etc. Bizarre.

Ha!  Mine was bat shit crazy.  See a couple of posts above.   

albrecht

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 25, 2019, 08:18:31 PM
Ha!  Mine was bat shit crazy.  See a couple of posts above.
I saw that. Ha. Nuts. My teacher was actually pretty good but had a thing for printing "correctly" using the T-Square and all letters same size and spacing. Weird. But on the good side he once said "you grade your own draft, I'm not going to grade you." I still only managed to give myself a low B, upon his saying it was better than the "C" I gave myself.  :o I guess it is remnants of Norskie stoicism and Lutheran guilt or as the current popular say janteloven. K_Dubb would know of which I speak. 

Quote from: albrecht on February 25, 2019, 08:33:07 PM
I saw that. Ha. Nuts. My teacher was actually pretty good but had a thing for printing "correctly" using the T-Square and all letters same size and spacing. Weird. But on the good side he once said "you grade your own draft, I'm not going to grade you." I still only managed to give myself a low B, upon his saying it was better than the "C" I gave myself.  :o I guess it is remnants of Norskie stoicism and Lutheran guilt or as the current popular say janteloven. K_Dubb would know of which I speak.

Oh man.  Norskie stoicism and Lutheran guilt?   I can definitely understand the Lutheran guilt bit but the hell with that "Norskie stoicism". 
You need a good dose of that good old fashion Prussian arrogance my man.   When I self graded, I was always shit hot baby. 

Seriously, while these drawings are fun to look at, I am sure the purpose was to drive home the point on how all these things worked and were put together.
Obviously the focus is not on precision - there was a war on after all.   ;)

K_Dubb

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 25, 2019, 08:45:28 PM
Oh man.  Norskie stoicism and Lutheran guilt?   I can definitely understand the Lutheran guilt bit but the hell with that "Norskie stoicism". 
You need a good dose of that good old fashion Prussian arrogance my man.   When I self graded, I was always shit hot baby. 

Seriously, while these drawings are fun to look at, I am sure the purpose was to drive home the point on how all these things worked and were put together.
Obviously the focus is not on precision - there was a war on after all.   ;)

Ha yeah it is basically "don't think you're anybody special."  Unfortunately I came of age in this country during the gifted-student era and had to learn Jante's truth at the cruel hand of experience.

The drawings are great; I'd be tempted to frame them with a note for posterity.  None of them had probably heard of visualization but that's what they were doing.  I can still remember my dad teaching me to drive manual.  He's an engineer, of course:  "Now you're smart so I'm going to explain this to you -- a clutch is a series of counterrotating plates..."

Uncle Duke

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on February 21, 2019, 09:07:16 PM

Aircraft Identification Book - I remember this book vividly when I was a kid. It had an airplane locked in the beam of a search light on the cover and
               it had a write up on anything in the air at that time.  It was quite extensive.  US planes, Russian and British Planes, Italian, German, Japanese Planes,
               Dutch, French I even seem to recall Mexican.  It had silhouettes of the planes with a write on each.  I seem to recall that in the back there
               was even a section on contraptions called a Gyrocopter.   I don't know what became of this book.   I guess it was misplaced in a move
               somewhere along the line.  I'd like to find another one.
           


Those WWII a/c recognition manuals are fairly common, here one for sale currently on eBay.

ebay.com/itm/1943-WWII-Airplane-Recognition-Manual-FM-30-30-US-England-Germany-Japan-Aircraft-/283389993538?redirect=mobile

Autogyros, maybe?   They were used by most of the warring nations in WWII, although not in actual combat.

albrecht

Quote from: Uncle Duke on February 25, 2019, 09:50:46 PM

Those WWII a/c recognition manuals are fairly common, here one for sale currently on eBay.

ebay.com/itm/1943-WWII-Airplane-Recognition-Manual-FM-30-30-US-England-Germany-Japan-Aircraft-/283389993538?redirect=mobile

Autogyros, maybe?   They were used by most of the warring nations in WWII, although not in actual combat.

[size=78%]Going up for a few weeks into the belly of the beast again. Haha. Plan to check out the "new"  air n space museum out in Virginny.want to see Blackbird etc. Hear it is really nice. I recall someone (Birtchers? LaRouche?)  once gave away a little card so as you could ID embasy cars by license plates. Good stuff.[/size]

albrecht

Quote from: K_Dubb on February 25, 2019, 09:40:31 PM
Ha yeah it is basically "don't think you're anybody special."  Unfortunately I came of age in this country during the gifted-student era and had to learn Jante's truth at the cruel hand of experience.

The drawings are great; I'd be tempted to frame them with a note for posterity.  None of them had probably heard of visualization but that's what they were doing.  I can still remember my dad teaching me to drive manual.  He's an engineer, of course:  "Now you're smart so I'm going to explain this to you -- a clutch is a series of counterrotating plates..."


Somehow RCH got some gas fumes when he was taught about a transmission... counter-rotating plates morphed into anti-gravity and "torsion models".. it is in the model!!!

Quote from: albrecht on February 25, 2019, 10:16:54 PM

Somehow RCH got some gas fumes when he was taught about a transmission... counter-rotating plates morphed into anti-gravity and "torsion models".. it is in the model!!!

The run on smoke.  When you let the smoke out they do not work any more.   ;D

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