German WW1 10.5cm practice with fuze EX.HZ.05.SP

[joery]

hello,

I have this German practice,fuze EX.HZ.05.SP
the projectile is 347mm without fuze, the driving band is 13.5mm and 28mm from base to band.

these dimensions are the same of the 10.5cm H.GESCHOSS 05.
bottom is open.
would anyone have documentation of this?
thanks in advance.

grtz joery

 

[Alpini]

Hi Joery,

nice shell...

"Ex" (Exerzier-) can be translated with dummy or drill so your shell was not intended to be fired. Practise shells (in german "b" = bung") can be fired and are mostly filled inert or with a reduced charge. The Ex shells were used to train setting the fuzes and loading / unloading / firing the gun (in german "exerzieren"). You shell looks like it was not very often used. Used Ex shells are normally full of scratches. The hole in the bottom of the shell could be used as a grip to unload the shell from the gun.

Documents on german "b" shells are very hard to find while documents about german WW1 "Ex" shells are nearly impossible to find. It may be because they should have been handled like a live shell and there is not really much to document about a empty Ex shell).

 

[joery]

The hole in the bottom of the shell could be used as a grip to unload the shell from the gun.

I think this is the right reason.
thanks,
grtz joery