Quote:
Originally Posted by guy labbe
collected some BEF battery boxes on the Belgian coast, surely left behind in 1940.
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Not unless they had a time machine back then: the one at bottom left has a 1944 date on it!
They're almost certainly ones which have been sold off as surplus/scrap post-WW2, because the wooden cases were re-used continuously. Faulty or worn out batteries would be returned to workshops for testing and dead cells would be replaced or the entire battery rebuilt as necessary before being refilled, charged, tested and finally reissued. The boxes represent a considerable amount of time and money and would not be discarded unless damaged beyond repair. They would finally be disposed of in bulk when the army changed over to the steel-cased equivalents in the 1950s.
(If they'd been left behind in 1940 they would not exist now, because once they were useless as batteries the spare plates, separators, and repair facilities would not exist in the occupied territories.)
Having said that, it's a wonderful set of battery boxes, do you have a radio truck to put them in?
Chris.