unknown german Signal Ammunition

[bergler]

Hi,
anybody knows what this signal ammo would be? It was found with hundreds of "standard" flares next to a german air base from the war. Many of the flares were still in the box (rotten of course), and quite a few piles of these short cartridges. They are not intended for a flare gun I think, but maby for a signal mechanism in a plane? Maby we can bring some light in here. Diameter is 25mm, lengh 37mm.....

[signalman]

Could they be starting cartridges for the engines on a plane ???

[BrunoH]

Hi,
At a moment, I thought it was HandRauchzeichen but the length doesn't seem to be compatible.
It make me thought to some 'starter' for mortar.. So, I would say, .. .be very careful...
Regards

[bergler]

definately not mortar, there were lots of other Luftwaffenn items like Meldebüchse Land, Landungsrauchzeichen etc. Quite rare items. Those ones I don`t know, but have similar from another aurfield in France....

[BrunoH]

Hi,
Would it be possible that these cartridges may be used by such here bellow mechanism ?

http://leuchtpistole.free.fr/Sommaire/E ... electrique

Regards

[bergler]

Hi,
Would it be possible that these cartridges may be used by such here bellow mechanism ?

http://leuchtpistole.free.fr/Sommaire/E ... electrique

Regards

That is exactly what I was thinking of. Dies anybody know what type of ammo this mechanism used, normal flares or special cartridges?

[BrunoH]

It should be special cartridges because it seems to be an electrical ignition .....

[BrunoH]

You may see where this system was on the Me262 for instance:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2 ... 62b_02.htm

(look for 'flare chutes' in the above web page).

[bergler]

Hi Bruno,

thanks for the link....I will post in another forum with some aviation specialists, mabe we find out.....

[BrunoH]

Hi again,
Just what I've just found:

Sixteen signal flare tubes are fitted in the port side of the rear fuselage. These were used to fire coloured recognition lights. These tubes were fitted to the side because it was impossible to open the cockpit hood in flight to fire signal flares in the more conventional manner. They were fired electronically from the cockpit.
There were two main purposes for these flares. Firstly, they were used for air-to-ground communication with friendly anti-aircraft gunners to indicate that the Me 262's attack was imminent and to warn them to withhold their fire. Secondly, they were used to signal the control tower at the aircraft's home base to switch on the flare-path for night landings. Airfields were normally kept as dark as possible until a friendly aircraft approached to avoid attracting Allied intruder aircraft which maintained constant patrols in the vicinity of German airfields. Their object was to attack the jet aircraft at their most vulnerable times during take off and landing. The slower propeller-driven aircraft were then able to attack the Me 262s when their speed was reduced.
Allied intruder pilots would observe the colour sequence fired by an approaching aircraft, approach and fire identical colours themselves. The specific aim was to deceive the German airfield controllers into illuminating the airfield and thus facilitate a successful attack on both the runways and parked aircraft. Endeavoring to avoid falling into this trap, the Germans chose to change their colour sequence at frequent intervals in the course of a night's operations to a pre-arranged cycle, therefore ensuring that a particular signal was valid for only a short period. It was for this reason that the Me 262 was equipped with so many signal tubes, enabling a number of different colours to be carried.

Source: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... a-U1-Red-8