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Mystery object for your consideration


B series

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Now the dark evenings are with us, often means more time indoors, less workshop time.

Clive / FV1602 often has mystery objects to entertain us, therefore he does not have to chance to join in. So I thought I would post an object for consideration. 

Anyone take a guess at who used this, where and what for etc?

Clive is such an expert he most likely will come up with an NSN, and an the operators manual for this object.  1st clue, it is approx 20 inches long.

 

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B series

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The camouflage pattern on the "turtle's" head suggests WW1 German army to me, but that could be way off the mark.

I'll hazard a wild guess: is it a booby trap device, similar to the dead rats packed with explosive that commando-type units are said to have left on German bases?

Or a camouflage helmet for commando-type units approaching enemy formations in water?

Edited by John F
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Actually, this isn't really a military item.  Some years ago, it was realised by Greyhound owners that, as their racing dogs aged, they missed the track, they missed their friends and rivals and generally became depressed.  But, chasing the hare proved all too much.  So, White City introduced a veterans' day for retired racing greyhounds.  It included some bottom-sniffing, a set of lamp posts were set up for competitive pi**ing (height achieved, quantity and colour were all judged) and the highlight was the closing event... the veterans' race.  Chasing after a hare at their age would have clearly been impossible and so... thinking back to their childhood fairy tales the organisers remember the tale of the hare and the tortoise.  This is one of the tortoises which were pulled, very slowly round the track in front of the old dogs....  I'll get my coat. 

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9 hours ago, B series said:

Good try, but not the Vietnam war which was fought around 80 degrees W, but same era and more around 100 degrees E. 

Some mistake, surely? Vietnam is around 100 degrees E.

So working on the basis that the object was deployed around 80 degrees W,  at a guess was it deployed by the USA in Cuba?

Edited by mtskull
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Well yes it is Gordon_M.  Congrats.

The object is a turtle replica made of heavy gauge copper with internal space for an explosive device and trigger, and provide a visual attraction. 

 Around 1960/61 the NSA & CIA instigated  Project Mongoose. NSA 5412/2 Group planted several of these turtles  in the bay that Fidel Castro liked to dive in, and it was hoped that he would be attracted to one and pick it up and set off an explosion, but for some reason the idea did not work. I guess he was not into turtles. The idea seems over complicated to me, there must have been a much easier and certain way to achieve the same end.

 

B series

 

 

 

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