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Subs, Almost look like 4.2" mortar rounds. The prop charge on the end looks to have a fiberboard cover, right after the pusher plate seems to be a break so it seems that it might be an ejection round and the fuze is an extended one so with all of that together, could it be a bounding round? Possibly for anti-personnel or minefield clearance? That's my guess. Cheers, Bruce.
 
Bruce,
you're in the ballpark, they are 4.2-inch mortars. The fuze does have an extension, it is a cartridge which is fired by a lanyard. You pull the lanyard, firing the cartridge, which drives the mortar into the barrel until it hits the firing pin, firing the mortar as normal. This reverse cartridge setup allows the mortar to be fired in a horizontal position, and the blast from firing to be vented out the rear - a recoiless 4.2-inch. There is/was one of the weapons and one round on display at the Army Chemical Museum at Ft. Leonard Wood. Someplace I have better photos and a decent description, but this thread is about the old photos. I'm attaching the description from the photo, along with another of the mortar firing. Realize again that the description on the photos are from a photographer, often the details are fuzzy - or wrong. Enjoy.

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Couple more shots from the European theater. The description on the back of these photos is the same, so I will show it only once.

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Thought I'd throw in a couple of close-ups of the gauges from the photos above. Can one of our German speakers translate? Sorry, that is the best I can enlarge the photo.

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Jeff, Can't read German, but the last line says 20 seconds. Those are pictures of the cockpit of the man guided V-1 or what the picture captions as the V-4, if I'm not mistaken, so I would guess that it is of a self destruct arming mechanism giving the pilot his chance to bail out before impact. Getting back to the pix of the 4.2" recoiless mortar, do you have any pictures of the 60mm and 81mm recoiless mortars and their ammo? Cheers, Bruce.
 
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It is instructions for how to start the engine (1st row) and how to restart (2nd row) during flight. (which valves and switches to turn etc.)
 
Thanks EOD, it's always nice to know what the little bits are trying to tell us.

Bruce, I have absolutely nothing on 60 and 81mm recoiless, but may have something on the 4.2-inch, I'll check this morning. Do you have anything on a 60 and 81?
 
Thanks EOD. Good to know that it didn't say "You now have 20 seconds to kiss your a** goodbye". Of course if you are flying low, it COULD mean that:xd:.

Jeff, about the 60, PM sent. Cheers, Bruce.
 
Maybe he was just having a really good day??
 
Here is a nice shot of a Japanese bomb on a destroyed airfield on Okinawa. I like this photo because there are very few photos that clearly show the fin extensions, which in order to save metal were made from plywood.

For those interested the bomb is a - ready for this? 250kg Navy Bomb, Type 1 No. 25 MK2 Model 1 Mod 1. Say that three times fast -

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Been pretty busy lately, but not out of photos yet. Here are some more with Japanese stuff. Note that the 37mm's have the lead-foil covers on the fuzes -

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USS Wisconsin, 23 May 1945. Care and feeding of the 16-inch gun. It says on the card that each of the powder bags is 110lbs. Not sure about that but it doesn't look like the sailors are having fun.

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