Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 149:
Description
WWII USAAF Type A-4 Dead Reckoning Navigator’s Briefcase, stenciled "C.M.L.", complete with snap-in insert board, Saint-Nazaire area map, AN-5837-1 Altitude Correction Computer and Type G-1 True Airspeed Computer by Crowe Name Plate & Mfg. Co. This lot presents a genuinely equipped USAAF Type A-4 navigator’s kit bag, the standard-issue field case carried by dead reckoning navigators aboard heavy and medium bombers such as the B-17, B-24, and B-25. The stenciled initials "C.M.L." appear at the top handle closure, suggesting issue to or ownership by a specific airman, though no separate published biography or unit record has been located to identify this individual with certainty; the story here rests in the surviving kit itself rather than in any documented service record. The bag retains its original snap-in portfolio divider board fitted with a celluloid map sleeve holding a printed French map centered on the Saint-Nazaire area of Brittany, home to a heavily fortified U-boat pen complex and a repeatedly targeted objective for Eighth Air Force heavy bomber missions flown from England beginning in 1942. Navigators tasked with strikes against such coastal targets relied on kits of exactly this type to carry flight plans, plotting charts, and correction computers into the air; dead-reckoning navigation demanded that a course be carried forward from known positions and continuously corrected for time, airspeed, altitude, and wind, with circular computers converting instrument readings into working figures that were then transferred to the chart with plotting tools. The presence of a genuine theater-relevant map alongside its calculating instruments gives this lot an unusually coherent, working association between bag, tools, and target area, without implying that the map documents a specific sortie flown by this bag’s owner. The briefcase itself is constructed of heavy olive-drab canvas with a leather-reinforced bottom and leather-wrapped carry handles showing period stitching, opening via a top zipper to an interior arrangement of canvas pouches, pencil loops, and snap-secured pockets original to the design. Contents include the Type AN-5837-1 Altitude Correction Computer and the Type G-1 True Airspeed Computer, both manufactured by Crowe Name Plate & Mfg. Co. of Chicago and marked on their printed dial faces with U.S. Army Air Forces property stampings, drawing, spec, and order numbers; a hinged metal parallel rule with folding arms is fitted within the insert, and a wax pencil or eraser stick is housed in one of the interior sleeves alongside the celluloid map holder. Condition is good and entirely consistent with hard wartime field use: the canvas exterior shows heavy staining, fading, and scuff wear throughout, while the leather handles and bottom trim display significant crazing, cracking, and finish loss. Interior stitching, snaps, and pocket construction remain sound and functional, and the celluloid computers and map holder show only light age-appropriate surface scuffing with the printed map intact and legible; instrument function has not been tested. A hard-used, honestly worn USAAF navigator’s kit that retains its insert board, both period computers, and an evocative Saint-Nazaire area map – the working tools of the men who plotted courses over occupied France.
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