French or Polish Mle 1910 75mm Armor Piercing High Explosive Projectile?

[M8owner]

This came out of Poland, but I am hoping it is French so I can mate it with a nice French Mle 1931 75mm case that is inbound to me (Char B1 tank hull gun). May I request our member's help in determining the country of origin? Thank you.



Sorry, I had a great number of issues with the photos - could not rotate - due to a new computer. The maker's mark is "BHH" with some little crowns above the letters.

 

[MINENAZ16]

Hello,

I really don't know if Polish have made their own shells or if they bought directly in France.

Maybe a Polish guy could answer this question.

Regards

 

[jeff w]

Have you already got a Char B 75mm HE round?

The Sa 35 in the Char B was intended to fire primarily HE.
The Char B gun in the hull had NO traverse making any 75mm AP rounds useless in a tank battle (in addition to the pathetic 220 m/s muzzle velocity of the L/17 SA 35).
The 47mm in the turret would be used exclusively in any tank vs tank engagements.
The 75 was good for shelling a town (see the battle for Stonne) but that's about it.

That WZ 1910 AP would really look fantastic in a Polish 75mm case for the Wz.97 or Wz 02/26.
The Poles knocked out quite a bit of German armor firing 75mm AP. There was a gunner named Mieczyslaw Herod who knocked out 3 German tanks firing his WZ 1897.

 

[marek_wawa]

As Far as I knowe we didn't make our own shells for 75mm guns.

"Produkcji armaty w Polsce nigdy nie podjęto. Do 1939 roku w WP znalazło się jednak 1,374 sztuki armaty wz.97. Łączna ilość amunicji wynosiła 2.250.000 sztuk. Przypadało więc ponad 1.600 pocisków na działo."

and this means "The production of the gun in Poland never happened. Till 1939 there were 1,374 guns wz. 97 in Polish Army. The total ammo count was 2,250,000 pcs. so there were over 1,600 rounds per gun!"

We had a lot of ammo so the production wasn't needed but I'll search for more information. Meanwhile you can visit this site for some info about the Polish 75mm rounds: http://www.7dak.pl/index.php/wyposa.../685-amunicja-artyleryjska-kalibru-75-mm.html

Fajna klucha
Regards, Marek

 

[M8owner]

The Germans were kind enough to document that the AP round did exist for the 75mm hull gun. I do have another case on the way, and it is my understanding the HE shell is the rather common one used for all those French M1897 75's.

 

[M8owner]

The case, projectile and fuse are all together now. I almost have all the rounds for the French Char B tank. It is interesting that the projectile and fuse have the same "BHH" makers mark, 3 little crowns, "62" and "35" date code.

 

[Redmeer]

Poland used French 75mm Mle 10 AP projectiles. This piece have P 1 in oval - its polish stamp. Great piece of steel by the way. Case is wrong - Mle 31 was a fortress gun, Poland used mle 98 guns with 75x350R case.

 

[M8owner]

Awesome. Thank you Redmeer. How hard is it to find the proper Polish 75mm case? What does the head stamp look like for this case? Does it have "DEC 75" like the French ones or "WZ"?

I will let it sit on the French case for now. There is a thread on this site about French WWII tank ammo. It shows there are four 75 X 247R French cases that are acceptable for the Char B tank hull gun. My case is one of those - it was used for fortress guns also.

 

[Redmeer]

Yes. But I don't have any sources regarding shooting AP from this gun. Polish case (75x350R) is rather popular thing. But it's nothing wrong with french case also, because Poland, as I said above, used french ammuniton also (later Poland switched to own production - both projectiles and cases).

Photo of polish stamps:

Arm. wz. 97 - Gun model 1897
W 1 in oval - weapon expert stamp
ST in circle - mark of case manufacturer (ST - Starachowice)

 

[M8owner]

May I convince you to sell me a Polish 75mm case and ship it to the US?

 

[Redmeer]

I will mail to you.

 

[jeff w]

Ideally you'd want it stamped for armor piercing;

 

[M8owner]

Hey Jeff. That is a cool case. Care to trade?