A very long time ago the L5 parachute illuminating flare from the early 1980s was covered on the blog here. Obviously this design is long obsolete and various more modern versions have been used by the British Army over the years. Tonight we are looking at what I believe to be the current model, the L24A1 model:
The design is fairly similar at first glance, consisting of a green plastic tube with a firing system at one end and a rubber cap at the other protecting the flare itself which bursts out through this on firing:
The flare’s designation is printed onto the outside of the tube in white:
This also indicates that this particular example was produced in October 2012. The reverse of the tube has the instructions for actually firing the flare:
The firing position is indicated by a raised ‘F’ on the base, whilst a white ‘S’ for safe is visible to the left:
The slider is pulled down to arm the flare, revealing a red dot:
The flare is then twisted to fire. The base of the flare is marked ‘P’ to indicate by touch that this is a parachute flare in the dark:
These flares are used both in operational service and training to illuminate the battlefield as in this press story from 2016:
The Royal Logistics Corp let off the Shamooli flares near the base where exercise Shamal Storm is taking place.
The British Army is currently staging its biggest overseas military training exercise in more than 15 years.
Around 1,600 troops are taking part in Exercise Shamal Storm, which is testing their capability to deploy up to 30,000 personnel if needed.
The flares are small plastic tubes with a pullstring that, when pulled, shoots a rocket propelled flare approximately 800m into the air.
The flare then burns with a bright orange-red colour for 50 seconds whilst dropping to the ground with a small parachute.
It allows infantry units to light an area up in a battle about 1km squared so as to expose the enemy they are engaging.
Although technically called Illumination Flares, military personnel refer to them as Shamoolies…
As 30 flares were shot into the night sky, it was a brief delay before the landscape was thrown into a bright light, illuminating the rough mountainous terrain
Opening the pouch up, it can be seen that there is a selection of elasticated loops and velcroed pockets to allow the different cleaning brushes to be carried:
To prevent items being lost in the field, the edges of the pouch are elasticated so items dropped back into the pouch won’t go missing when it is rolled up, even if they have not been put into the loops:
The pouch itself has a label indicating it was made by Heckler and Koch in 2011, along with the British Army NSN number:
This set is almost complete, but there are still plenty of spare loops to allow soldiers to add their own pieces if needed:
Taken out of the pouch it can be seen that the set has a variety of chamber and bore brushes, a multi piece cleaning rod, wire pull through, oil in a sprayer bottle and a wire brush:
The full list of contents reads:
Whilst the reverse of the instruction leaflet shows where to place each piece in the pouch:
This cleaning kit seems pretty comprehensive and well thought out and I can imagine it would have been popular with many. It should have a small detachable field pouch to allow a cut down set of cleaning equipment to be carried in the field, but this feature is sadly missing from my example. The spray pump oil bottle seems a definite improvement over the old type and would allow oil to be directed to exactly where it is needed rather than using a piece of pull through to try and smear it in the right direction. This kit was picked up for £10 at Haworth WW2 weekend a few months back and as they usually fetch over £40 for a full complete set I feel I did rather well.
This large silvered valve has a Bakelite base plug with seven pins on the bottom:
The main valve is marked up with the A ‘crown’ M mark of the Air Ministry:
And a stores code of 10E/9141:
This stores code is equivalent to the civilian designation 220B and the online “Valve Museum” explains its use:
This is an oblong aluminium tin with a lid that comes in a variety of sizes. The flat top allows these dishes to be stacked on top of each other in an oven to allow the most efficient use of the space and fuel to cook large quantities of food in a single sitting. The lid is a simple stamped piece of aluminium, but fits snugly over the lower pan. Removing the lid allows the dish to be used as a serving tray:
These dishes were used extensively in prisons, army camps, schools and by the Civil Defence organisations for emergency feeding after a disaster such as bombing or a nuclear strike. Here we see the tins being used by a Civil Defence welfare group demonstrating cooking in the field:
The example we have tonight is dated 1948 and has the Royal cypher stamped on the lid:
This is repeated of the main pan:
As these are stamped with GR rather than the /|\ mark, they were for civil use and so might have been for a prison, school or most relevantly for us to see service with the Civil Defence organisations.
Although named Gundy tins after the original manufacturer of this ware, this example was made by Watsons Engineering Service, Enfield:
Containers such as this were essential to feed people in emergencies and the level of food needing to be provided after enemy raids can be gleaned from this report from a member of the WVS in World War II:
This avometer was originally issued in a wooden box with a selection of accessories:
Sadly I only have the avometer itself, but it is a striking and impressive instrument. The front of the avometer has the important dials and gauges:
At the top we have a window with the scales for reading off voltage, amperes etc.:
The model number is printed at the top of the dial, whilst a serial number is marked at the bottom right of the dial, the last three digits indicate that this avometer was produced in June 1944:
Underneath this dial are the controls to set the instrument for different purposes, whilst the bottom two corners have the terminals to allow the instrument to be wired up to a piece of work.
On the rear is a printed panel describing how to use the instrument:
A leather carrying handle is fitted to the top of the avometer:
Underneath this is a removable cover to access the battery compartment:
Note also the loop to hold the two separate aluminium probes, sadly missing from this set. The avometer uses a small 1.5V dry cell battery, this looks like a post war example from the packaging, but is similar to the type used during World War Two:
The voltage range of these avometers is a little crude and looking online it has been suggested that they were for use with electronics such as engine starters and vehicle electrical systems rather than more delicate electronics such as wireless or radar systems.
This has a drawstring around its edges that allow it to be secured over the bergen:
A plastic slider buckle allows the string to be tensioned to give a secure fit:
As usual, a small white label is sewn inside with details of the item’s NSN number and date of manufacture:
Two MTP covers can be found, a smaller version designed to cover packs such as the daysack; here modelled by a Ghurkha on exercise:
And a larger bergen cover like the example above, which can be seen here being used by a fusilier:
