Can anyone tell me any information about this 6 pounder shell casing?

[samchap1]

Hello,

I bought this 6 pounder shell casing for a tenner at a boot sale quite a few months ago. I didn't have one in my collection and I thought it looked really interesting so I had to have it.

I haven't been able to make head nor tail of the markings on the base though, and I was wondering if anyone could help me determine what war it was used in, what year it was made, what type of weapon it was used in, etc. There is what appears to be an '18' on the right hand side of the hole, possibly meaning 1918? There are many markings on it and I can't make sense of any of them.

I have been meaning to get round to finding more out about it for quite some time now and I saw this forum and thought that you military experts could help me out.

Thanks, Sam

 

[tigbrand]

Hi,welcome to Bocn. Your case is interesting,its a Hotchkiss 6 pounder case, Made by Kynoch and for land service,usually in tank guns. Yours unusually though has been converted to mk III* which I think?? relates to the primer being changed for a screw in type and the case modified for this. This was done by Royal Laboratories. 18 I would assume is the date. Tim G will probably add to this. Never had one myself but had lots of mkIIIs. cheers Tig

 

[TimG]

Sam,

What Tig said and -

The A in a diamond signifies that the case has been subject to low temperature annealing.

The U and 8 I presume to be the batch number and year of annealing.

The S in the diamond (which puzzles me as normally it would be in a circle) signifies that the case has had a scleroscope test (hardness testing)

There appears to be a punch mark above the 6 pr stamping, such a mark in this area normally signifies that the case has repairable damage.

The rectangle denotes a repair contractor's mark (this would also cover modification) In this instance the contractor is RL which is assumed to be Woolwich (Royal Laboratories).

As Tig said the asterix denotes that that the primer hole has been rebushed or converted from a cap recess.

TimG

 

[samchap1]

Thank you so much Tigbrand and TimG.

I can't believe how much you know. I was searching everywhere to find out what the markings meant and I couldn't find anything. Your knowledge astounds me! How did you find all this information out?

Do you think that the marking that looks like 18 means it's from 1918 or is that something different? There also appears to be a 5 on the left of the primer hole. What do you think this means?

Anyway, thank you so much again for your help. I'm so glad I found this website, it's brilliant!

 

[Dandebur]

Hello everybody,
Thank you Tigbrand and TimG for the explanations, they are very interessant.
Personaly, I think the 18 is not for a date (1918) but I don't know for what it is.
I have a case pratically identical to yours ( but not converted for the N2 screw-in primer ).At the location of the 5 it is written Lot 7 and at the location of the 18 it is 72. (Note the broad arrow above). From 1916, and perhaps before, K stamps the date with 4 digits.
I have one example dated 1916 Lot 54 also with the number18 underneath the broad arrow.
I can't illustrate because the photos are not done and I don't know exactly in whitch box the cases are. I can try to find them and post the pictures if somebody is interested.
Regards,
Dandebur.