German 37mm HE Maker Markings Can anyone identify the maker ?

[Gspragge]

This is the standard late ww1 German 3.7cm H.E. PD round. This one still has visible markings and has not been polished.
Does any one know who the markings stand for ? It wouldn't surprize me even if these were of Austrian manufacture for the
Germans as it follows the Austrian types and styles closely.

 

[Gspragge]

Has no one seen these marks on any other kind of WW1 projectile ?

 

[Yodamaster]

Never seen !

Yoda

 

[Alpini]

could the letters be "Gwk"? And if the case belongs originally to this projectile can you show the headstamp? If think it is Krupp manufacture for export.

 

[Gspragge]

The case is the regular 1918 German service case and the projectile is the common WW1 type. These often seem to have been polished and the markings not visible on the sides.
This is not a rare projectile type but nobody seems to know who made them ? Could the mark be an Austrian company -

 

[Alpini]

I compared it with a 3,7 cm Lichtspurgranate from my collection and think it is a bad stamped "Gwk" which is the "Friedrich Krupp Grusonwerk". If the shell is really a german service shell is still an open question for me. I know the british and french documents showing this shell and there are also modern german sources showing it, but they all rely on the foreign material with all of the failures taken over. The few official german sources I know show only other types of 37 mm shells. Some time ago there were some of these cartridges on the market which seemed to have their original cases and they had german export headstamps. I know these shells were used by the german army, but I have never seen any of these with german acceptance stamps. But all is possible...

 

[Gspragge]

All of the examples I have seen are in German service cases, some are reloads and you can make out the old flattened crimp marks. The German WW1 Army 37mm projectiles don't seem to have markings unless they are Navy issue and those tend to be prewar. It is not impossible that these were exported also ( to where at the time ? Austria) I have images of projectiles sitting on a German 37mm cannon but of course there just isn't the detail to confirm these exactly but I will check it again.

 

[highlandotter]

I have 2 projectiles with the projectile stamp with a M inside.I was wondering if they are made by the Gruson branch of Krupp and the M signifies Magdeburg? One is in a German case and the other is in a fancy stamped Roth.They are almost exactly the same in form.

 

[Gspragge]

Here are images of two of the several German 37mm cannon as developed. One I think does show the single wide band above the case and the large fuze. The other cannon doesn't show close enough detail though it appears to have multiple firing locks into which the round is affixed prior to loading. Also the ammunition box with sleeved projectiles. To make thing worse there are two styles, one with the wide band and one with the narrow like the Tracer projectile. Image courtesy Highland Otter.

Not quite in the order I placed them-

If any one has a narrow banded H.E. they can live without, I am looking for one.

 

[Andre Durieux]

Hi Gordon
I have also this marks M on the base but without any on the body.
BR
Andr