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20mm Becker

O

orcutteod

Well-Known Member
In closed are pictures of a fairly hard to find at least on this side of the pond a 20x70RB Becker cannon shell. The shell on the right for comparison is a 20x82 the Luftwaffe's standard aircraft cannon round from 1941 to the end of the war. I'm not familiar with 20mm Becker markings and hope I can get some information. I checked out all the measurements and they seem to check out OK for a 20mm Becker with incendary projectile.
 

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Hi Orcutteod,
Very nice little round, they are not that common over here either a good addition to the collection. Thanks for showing us, best Weasel.
 
Hi Orcutteod,

Now that's a very interesting round - I don't think I have seen a Becker's incendary projectile before!

The markings are similar to my HE one - notice the differences in the shell bases between the two years (1917 /1918) and looks like yours was also manufactured by "P & S" if I'm reading your head stamp correctly (yours appears to have the full manufacturer's name).

You also have the same Crown stamp with "F" under it - probably an acceptance stamp by "P & S"???

Yes they are a "hard-to-find" beast - my understanding is that the APs are rarer than the HE types, but I would say your one would be the rarer of them all!

Thanks for sharing
Cheers
Drew
 

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Having received this example just today, I haven't had time to do much research. SO, I won't be adding much to the details other than offering a variation of the headstamp.

Rick

Shell, Becker 20mm 001.jpg Shell, Becker 20mm 003 (Small).jpg
 
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Hi Rick,

Nice case!

So yet another head stamp variation wrt the manufacture's name stamp with the same year!

Cheers
drew
 
Here are my examples. My incendiary doesn't have the end cap that that fine specimen has. The practice has a zinc dummy fuze came on the casing with what appears to be a EuL headstamp also has at the bottom is the AWS (Artillieriewerkstatt Spandau) manufactures mark. Could someone enlighten me why the seemingly two head stamps? IAA had a thread on the Becker a while back and some good info came up. I could kick myself since I saw two of the Incendiary and two of the AP at the Aberdeen show and I could have probably got them for $200.00 but I passed since I was headed home. Cheers, Bruce.

P4180819.jpg


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Could anyone measure fuze thread diameter of a Becker HE-shell for me? Thanks in advance.
 
Der Uhu, The EuL is the top stamp on the casing and the bottom is a stylized AWS, which stands for, "Artilleriewerkstatt Spandau". Cheers, Bruce.
 
Here some pictures of the gun and ammo as I found recently in the Army Museum in Prague.
 

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I picked up a Becker case a little while ago - does anybody know why they all seem to have no primer in (or have I missed something really obvious!!)
 
I would be interested to see some pics/drawings/dimensions of a Becker projectile as I have a 20mm HE proj that is different to my other 151/20 & 20x138B projectiles.
I have posted pics & queries on erlier posts & so far no answer.
Basically the overall length is the same but the drive band is 10mm lower - therby making it taller overall when in a 138 or 151 case??
 
Hi Folks,
the question for me is still what the EuL could mean. Ok manufacturer is AWS but the rest? I have one here EuL AWS Ku 7 18.

By the way: How does this incendiary shell work? The bottom plug on the pics seems to be made from zinc alloy. What is the filling and how does the inceniary process start?

cheers
nudel
 
Nudelmannrichter said:
By the way: How does this incendiary shell work? The bottom plug on the pics seems to be made from zinc alloy. What is the filling and how does the inceniary process start?

cheers
nudel
Click to expand...

It is actually a tracer, the plugs (mostly steel, few in zinc) have very small holes in the centre where the flames have passed and ignited the tracer. Once the projectile left the barrel and the gas pressure behind the plug vanished the plug got blown out and the tracer started it's quite huge bright trace.
 
hicky1300 said:
I would be interested to see some pics/drawings/dimensions of a Becker projectile as I have a 20mm HE proj that is different to my other 151/20 & 20x138B projectiles.
I have posted pics & queries on erlier posts & so far no answer.
Basically the overall length is the same but the drive band is 10mm lower - therby making it taller overall when in a 138 or 151 case??
Click to expand...

Showing us an image would be the easiest way to get an answer.
 
thanks EOD,
I have seen several bottom plugs so far but never noticed the small holes. I have one of these whare plug is missing but there is a thread visible where the plug seems to have been screwed in.
Must have been an impressive Firework shooting with these tracers.

cheers
nudel
 
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