Can anyone help us figure out what this is ?

Assume that's a flare gun, used for various signalling purposes;

Quote

Flares were used to signal the ground staff when radio silence was needed or when the radio was out of action. They were used for at least four reasons:

1. To alert fire trucks for an emergency landing.
2. To alert ambulances to the fact of wounded crew aboard.
3. To reply to a ground flare or radio message.
4. To advise Anti Aircraft gunners of their friendly status.

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-WWII-bombers-fire-off-flares-when-they-were-landing

Edited May 23, 20197 yr by Sethos1988

That's a Very Pistol, it's (typically) for signalling the ground when returning from a night raid. Crews would be pre-briefed on which colour flare to respond with for a given colour of the day, this being to avoid spoofing since the answer colour would not be the same as the query colour.

So, the ground would fire a specific coloured flare, the returning aircraft would then need to respond with the correct answer colour, and if it did so, the defences would know it was a friendly aircraft as a result of a correct answering colour and then not open fire on it.

It was common on PFF (pathfinder force) target marker aeroplanes.

Edited May 23, 20197 yr by Chock

Thank you very much for your quick, interesting replys....

Check the instructions, it actually works. You have to load a flare from the rack before you can fire it.