LANCASTER DESERT EQUIPMENT STORAGE BOXES
Tara kindly e-mailed me the following 5 pictures of the case she had bought. My initial thoughts were that an ex-Commanding Officer of 107 MU had taken possesion of the case for his ` on the boat ` gear when leaving for home at the close of his WW2 tour of duty but the inscriptions do not seem to support this idea.
The next two pictures are of the Heliograph Signalling Mirror supplied to my father-in-law when he flew as Flt Engineer on Liberators of 355 Sqn over Burma in 1943/4. Dinghy practise was given which would incorporate practising using the Position Indicating Mirror. Could well be the same type used in the Lancaster Desert Equipment case.
So I started searching the web and came across two other of these Lancaster boxes that have appeared on auction sites in the past.
This one in the UK on 6th September 2012
And this second one in Canada January 2000
And I also came across The Lancaster Bomber Pocket Manual 1941-1945 on the web that listed Desert Equipment as part of the aircraft equipment.
So...my final thoughts are that there may well be a connection with the Lancaster shown below that may possibly have been the first of it`s kind to land at Kasfareet.
What if that box was sent from Blighty along with PD281 containing bits of kit for aircraft modifications while these special tests were taking place. 107MU ground crew would carry out these works. There again, if I was a cynic, I could suspect that the box was filled with contraband for the said O/C 107 MU !!!!!!