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5,5 inch Illumination Projectile British from 1957
- Thread starter Rafail
- Start date
oh well every day you learn something new!!
The decode on these marks is mostly fairly straightforward:
SX 4 GE is the part number (The SX notation was introduced in about 1952 and SX covers projectiles, TX covers engineer stores, TW grenades etc) 4 is fourth number taken up, ie a serial number and GE stands for General Empty. The designers reference is sometimes given but not in this case, the designers reference for this shell is D2(L)844/GE/79.
The next line "something" X35/4962 is probably the steel maker's code.
SMK = Smoke
Mk 2 = Mark 2 which can be used for coloured smoke or smoke screening. The Mark 1 could also be used for Incendiary.
OF/W is the Royal Ordnance Factory Woolwich
4/57 is the date of manufacture
and LOT 5 is the LOT number which, because it was manufactured after 1951, means the 5th lot of 1957. Lot numbers are glossed over but they are important in investigations of ammunition performance and failure.
StuartBrown
Member
Not sure about the number of shells in a lot but fuzes were made in lots of 2,500. 'Batching' was a way of identifying a groups of an ammunition items that were all made up from the same component lots - shells of the same filled lot with fuzes of the same filled lot, ditto primers, tracers etc.
I think production was based on individual orders (rather than an annual standing order or orders generated automatically when stocks fell below a particular level).
My father said that at the end of the Falklands War the stocks of 105mm were almost non-existent and the ROF expected orders which never materialised.
I think production was based on individual orders (rather than an annual standing order or orders generated automatically when stocks fell below a particular level).
My father said that at the end of the Falklands War the stocks of 105mm were almost non-existent and the ROF expected orders which never materialised.