November 20, 2009, 11:33
Lindell V. RiddleUSN Elgin dive watch (aka "canteen") >>
Hello Enzo,
Sorry for my not replying earlier.
My thoughts would be to start a separate new topic for your database here in Military Timepiece Discussions - EXCLUSIVE! such as Scott Whittey placed here... Evolution Of 4992B and 3992B Numbers / Database Beginnings which is a very important featured topic.
Once that is going, we can always alter it as the need arises.
Also, we also should retrieve some of William Schorr's images and archive them here in this topic for posterity. Those missing images prove once again how unreliable those "hosting services" can be.
Lindell
November 20, 2009, 18:12
Enzo LiguoriHi Lindell and All,
tnks for yr reply...we'll surely be glad to post the DB in a separate post for yr perusal...some interesting findings coming...
rgds
Enzo
November 22, 2009, 02:08
Seiji KamiyaHello Lindell Et.Al
I have been working with Enzo and Paul to produce the Elgin Canteen Database. Please "Sticky" our posting. I have posted it to the form.
Thank you
Seiji Kamiya
April 28, 2010, 01:50
Colin K. MillerPer my post on the Elgin Canteen database thread and as a follow up to some assertions made here.
CDR Fane makes two comments about waterproof wrist watches in his book "Naked Warriors", which is a history of the NCDUs.
The first comment he makes is that when they were prepping the teams (which contained men who were drawn from the SeaBees, among other units) for Operation Torch, they had a hard time finding appropriate waterproof instruments for the divers. He specifically notes watches. If the canteen watches were well-known to other USN personnel, it's doubtful that they would have been a mystery to the men building and training the NCDUs. This leads to Fane's second comment, which I included in my other post.
CDR Fane recounts an anecdote about a box of diving watches and compasses being lost overboard in PH and the team's divers recovering them. This was whilst loading equipment before sailing for an operation in the PTO in June '44. Again, this gives the impression that canteen watches weren't abundant and sorely needed by the teams. It also gives us a data point to say that divers watches were being issued before the MILSPEC was published in Dec 1944.