Paris Gun Shell Fragment? - Here's another oddball

[MikeS0000]

Gentlemen....

I picked up another quite odd item. It is an old paperweight with a piece of shell fragment on it. Marble base and silver 'inscription' plate in the front. The inscription on the plate is:
"THIS IS A FRAGMENT OF A SHELL FROM THE LONG DISTANCE CANNON WHICH FELL ON MY APARTMENT, 51 AVENUE MARCEAU, AUGUST 5, 1918."

The plate is pretty grungy and the marble is chipped, but this fragment has a segment of rifling cast into the shell's steel.

Now, I may be whacky, but I believe the only artillery to shell Paris was the "Paris Gun." Also, the PG Shell had 'rifling' cast into the steel and also their were two copper bands. I'm sure there were other Trench Art pieces made out of shell fragments, but the cast rifling has my curiosity piqued! It was not sold as a PG fragment, but only as a shell fragment paperweight.

Hasn't arrived yet, but any thoughts on whether it may be the case that it is actually from the Paris Gun?, Also, has anyone ever seen anything similar? I have a small collection of these Trench Art paperweights and perhaps thousands of this type were made!

Of course it would be most interesting if it is actually a PG Fragment and a fun item to investigate!

Thanks!
- Mike

 

[Alpini]

It is for sure a fragment of a "Paris Gun" projectile. You can see also a part of the groove for the copper driving band on the left side of the photo. Think it is one of a very few surviving parts of such shells. If I remember right there is sadly no original shell known to have survived somewhere.

 

[MikeS0000]

Thank you Alpini.

I did not notice that before. All of the information seems to be coming together. Here are two maps. The first shows the locations of the 'hits' that took place on August 5, 1918 and the second is a current Google Map of 51 Marceau Avenue. On the old map there are two hits (3 & 5) in the location of 51 Marceau Avenue.

Yes, I am finding out that there is not much physical material that remains of these guns. All I have been able to find are diagrams of the shells. I did find the following description though:

"The World War One wing of the museum (The French Army Museum at Les Invalides) has a complete selection of Great War uniforms, weapons and other unusual items such as a large piece of shrapnel from the German "Paris Gun", its rifling grooves clearly visible. Within a nearby display case lies a 1916 French infantry uniform, still covered with the mud of Verdun. Also at the museum are three dimensional situation maps created in the last century for contingency planning. These wonderful creations are huge, room-sized dioramas of major French cities and their surrounding terrain, and they are displayed in a new climate controlled wing."

Best regards!
- Mike

 

[butterfly]

You could possibly work out wether it was the upper or lower cast driving bands from the thickness of the piece.

Very interesting item and I would have thought extremely rare. I think every shell they fired was recorded and if I remember correctly they had to adjust weight/trajectory due to wear of the guns barrel (maybe someone could confirm this??)

thankyou for posting

regards Kev

 

[MikeS0000]

You could possibly work out wether it was the upper or lower cast driving bands from the thickness of the piece.

Very interesting item and I would have thought extremely rare. I think every shell they fired was recorded and if I remember correctly they had to adjust weight/trajectory due to wear of the guns barrel (maybe someone could confirm this??)

thank you for posting

regards Kev

Hi Kev -

Thank you for the idea on figuring out the upper or lower band. I'm beginning to think it may be a quite rare (or at least uncommon) item. The seller had it listed only as a "Shell Fragment Paperweight." The mention in the inscription of "Long Range Cannon," a Paris location and the 'cast lands' caught my attention, so I took a chance.

Best regards!
- Mike

 

[butterfly]

You may have read this but some interesting info in this link


[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Gun"]Paris Gun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/Filearisgun2.jpg" class="image"><img alt="Parisgun2.jpg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Parisgun2.jpg/300px-Parisgun2.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/f/f8/Parisgun2.jpg/300px-Parisgun2.jpg[/ame]

regards Kev

 

[Chris 42 RQ]

I think you are correct Butterfly !

Post deleted as Wikipedia has the facts

 

[Alpini]

I think every shell they fired was recorded and if I remember correctly they had to adjust weight/trajectory due to wear of the guns barrel (maybe someone could confirm this??

The shells were numbered. The first shell had a diameter of 210 mm and the following shells had slightly larger diameters due to wear of the barrel. If I remember right the diameter of the last shell was around 230 mm after which the barrel had to be replaced.

 

[Fusse2004]

.

Some more in my were subject to property in addition found! Harry

 

[Alpini]

some pictures of other fragments... And by the way the first image in the wiki article is showing a 38 cm S.K. L/45 gun + shell, not the "Paris Gun".

 

[MikeS0000]

Many thanks to all for the wonderful information. It arrived today and is (IMHO) quite a thrilling piece. Alpini you are certainly correct, there is a portion of the groove for the copper band. I can get a fairly decent measurement of the land+groove (although the width of the groove is a bit of an estimate) and the diameter calculation (just crunching numbers) comes to ~206 tot 208mms. I imagine some was worn away while being fired.

I will post some better pictures in a bit. There was another inscription on the front of the marble that I am sure had the owner's name on it. Too bad it is gone.

But thank you all again, the references are excellent. The shell fragment drawings appear to be is Cryllic? A Russian book?

Best regards!
- Mike

 

[MikeS0000]

Couple of photos, one is a closeup of the 'Copper Driving Band' groove.