1943 dated M84B1 with M54 fuze.

[DEADLINE222]

Apparently I am inept when it comes to taking pictures with my sole availible camera, so I will spare you the blurriness, and apologize in advance.

I have a 1943 dated 105mm M84B1 fired projectile (with all kinds of pretty stampings all around the body) and a 1943 dated, M54 fuze.

The first thing is, inspite of all of my efforts; I cannot remove the fuze....

I welded the projectile to a well anchored I-beam, and uzing a fuze wrench and a 6 foot "cheater bar", the fuze would narry a budge.

So, with that said; If anyone has any ideas as to a simpler, or bigger and better way to accomplish the removal of the fuze, feel free to enlighten me. At this juncture I take no pleasure in the thought of cutting the ogtive to relase the preasure on the fuze, so please refrain from tempting me.

Fuze removed or not, I aspire to restore this projectile to the way it left the factory/aresenal in 1943.

I have done much reading up on the M84B1, as well as viewed the threads on BOCN. From what I gather, the M84B1 is in fact a leaflet shell -which is verified in many a tech manuals.

However, the TMs dicussing the M84B1 I have seen are fairly modern. And based on my reading, the US Amry did not have a dedicated leaflet round durring World War 2; ergo when my shell was made. M84B1 is not listed in TM-9-1901, dated 1944; for example.

I have found many pictures of soldiers loading leaflets into what look like Gray colored shells, and have read several articles that told of "105mm **SMOKE** shells being loaded with leaflets"

As I absolutely despise repainting my specimens, any objective clarification on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

Furthermore, if this shell is actually destined to be a smoke shell, I would really like to paint it in that nifty period stylization. So, if anyone has an image of a vintage 105mm smoke from the period, that would be nice.

Done!

 

[HAZORD]

First of all, the M84 and the B1 variations are smoke projectiles. Base ejection smoke projectiles. They are the only projectiles of that caliber that could be loaded with leaflets, by unscrewing the base, removing the smoke candles, and stuffing them full of leaflets. The M60 is the other smoke projectile that was used for WP smoke, Mustard gas and maybe FS smoke, and totally contains those chemicals because they react with air, no way to load leaflets.

There are photos on BOCN of the gray M84 projectiles as labeled for leaflets. Dated 1943 M84B1:

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/78086-M84-Series-105-MM-Leaflette?highlight=leaflet

The fuze in your projectile is hard to remove, because the black powder charge used to kick the cargo out tends to corrode between the steel projo and the fuze. You can avoid welding projectiles to plates, by using a "Rigid" brand chain pipe vise. Wrap the projectile with 2 or 3 layers of tire inner tube to prevent the teeth on the vise from marking the projo. Use an acetylene torch and heat the top one inch of the projectile till it is cherry red, working around the projectile till all of it has been red, then dip just the fuze in cold water. Wear safety glasses, it will steam. This makes the fuze shrink away from the hot expanded projectile around it. Then dip the projo in to cool it. Beat on the fuze with a hammer, going all the way around it to knock it loose from the projo, then use your pipe wrench. If it doesn't want to move, repeat the torch/water/beat/wrench routine. I've never had one that didn't come out after 3 heatings. Shooting some penetrating oil in the joint between fuze and projectile aids in the unscrewing.