wingsofwrath
Well-Known Member
Hello, I have recently acquired a very nice cartridge case from the Italian 76/40 Mod. 1916 R.M. (British Armstrong QF 12 pounder 12 cwt licence produced by Ansaldo).
This particular piece of artillery was acquired by Romania in 1920 when the Romanian Navy finally got delivery of two destroyers („Mărăşti” ex-„Sparviero” and „Mărăşeşti” ex-„Nibbio”) of a class of four built for us in Italy just before the war and which had been requisitioned in 1915 by the Regia Marina and used in the Mediterranean as Romania was still neutral at the time. The other two, „Aquila” and „Falco” were kept by the Italians to extinguish a debt incurred for delivery of war materiel during the war and were later sold to Fraco's Spain.
These ships were each armed with four of these 76mm dual purpose naval and AA guns and, during the 1926 refit they were taken off and replaced with more modern artillery. During the second world war, the 76mm guns were used exclusively in the AA role to protect the port of Constanta and one battery in particular became renowned for it efficacy, downing six Soviet bombers during the first raids of 1941. In fact it became so well known, that King Michael himself visited it in a widely circulated publicity photo (left).
Now to the problem I have - I know what ammunition we used for these guns, because there is a preserved example at the Romanian Navy Museum (coincidentally situated less than a kilometre down the same street from where the battery was located during the war) and it's the same the Italians used during the war - a 76mm Shrapnel equipped with a Spoletta Modello 900 gs (the one in the museum seems to be a dummy).
However, the best drawing of this particular shell I have is very low quality and borderline illegible and I have no idea what book the drawing came from, so I was wondering if any of you can either provide me with the drawings or tell me where I can find them. Thank you!
This particular piece of artillery was acquired by Romania in 1920 when the Romanian Navy finally got delivery of two destroyers („Mărăşti” ex-„Sparviero” and „Mărăşeşti” ex-„Nibbio”) of a class of four built for us in Italy just before the war and which had been requisitioned in 1915 by the Regia Marina and used in the Mediterranean as Romania was still neutral at the time. The other two, „Aquila” and „Falco” were kept by the Italians to extinguish a debt incurred for delivery of war materiel during the war and were later sold to Fraco's Spain.
These ships were each armed with four of these 76mm dual purpose naval and AA guns and, during the 1926 refit they were taken off and replaced with more modern artillery. During the second world war, the 76mm guns were used exclusively in the AA role to protect the port of Constanta and one battery in particular became renowned for it efficacy, downing six Soviet bombers during the first raids of 1941. In fact it became so well known, that King Michael himself visited it in a widely circulated publicity photo (left).
Now to the problem I have - I know what ammunition we used for these guns, because there is a preserved example at the Romanian Navy Museum (coincidentally situated less than a kilometre down the same street from where the battery was located during the war) and it's the same the Italians used during the war - a 76mm Shrapnel equipped with a Spoletta Modello 900 gs (the one in the museum seems to be a dummy).
However, the best drawing of this particular shell I have is very low quality and borderline illegible and I have no idea what book the drawing came from, so I was wondering if any of you can either provide me with the drawings or tell me where I can find them. Thank you!
