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ZtZS/30 Sabotaged time fuze

havoc

Well-Known Member
This item i purchased recently as a normal ZtZS/30 Fuze. As with all my fuzes i strip and clean them. It came from Germany with a kwk He round i purchased.

It was still sealed in its bakerlite fuze holder. When i too it out all the side screws and base screws were still waxed and un touched. I removed the screws and took off the nose. This is what i found inside. The time unit has the inncorrect screws running through it, far too large heads, and threads too short to secure it to the base threads. The catch for securing the rotating leg was back to front, and the support legs missing.This unit could never had worked. If it was fitted to the shell it would never had gone off. Im 100% certain this is a sabotaged unit. The maker code is dlr, which i can find no reference.The fuze is a minter, a superb item, which clearly has never been near a projectile.

If you check out the pics you will see what i mean.The base screws are in place beneath the wax, and have never been touched, same as what the side securing screws were before i removed them.The wax is still present at the rear of the holes.I thought this could have been a post war fiddle, but its clearly not, its as found.

As you all proberlly know these items were commonly made by forced labour.It carried the death penalty for this kind of delibrate work. What happened to the peron who did this we will never know, indeed if they were ever found out.An unique piece of history.It doesnt fit in with my collection, as i only collect working units.I dont want to correct it, i think it will be wrong to do so. So im offering it for sale.

Please feel free to PM me or email me at kwkflak88@hotmail.com.

Many thanks for looking,

Regards,

Clive.
sight_064.jpg
 
I have to add that this is the best one ive ever laid eyes on!
If it wasn`t for my current project then i would snap yer hand off for it!
Beautiful item,will look superb in any collection.B)

best

waff
 
Hi Waff,

Many thanks for that, yes its a real cracker. The threads on the base look as they have just come off the lathe. The rest is also superb !!!!
Hope it goes to a good home in the sale section.
All the best mate,

Clive.
 
makers trigramme dlr = Geratebau Gmbh , Ruhla (T) Handfeuerwaffen- u - Zunder-Teille

Steve
 
Ref sabotaged items would the sabotage work have been on full batches or just the odd one
 
I Believe that due to the ultimate price a worker would have to pay,namely his life, i doubt very much it would have gone as far as batches. the Germans were quite strict on the production of these items and they were checked frequently. If one was found to be delibrate, as this one can only be, the assembler would have been proberley shot soon after. I have heard stories of workers slipping them into batches, even altering them to pre-detonate as soon as they were loaded or fired. Thus the aim of sabotaging and the penalty involved if caught.
 
The way the fuzes were strictly controlled it would be doughtful if this fuze would have got into the field, every fuze has a batch number therfore it would be very easy to see which batch had been tampered with . of course if the culprit had been caught it would be a death sentance .the most likely cause of this fuze to be defective would i would hazard a guess be one of the last batches to be made and to use up bits n pieces that were left over .
Still its only a theory ?

Steve
 
I see your point Steve,
But if this was found, it clearly cant and wont work. I guess we will never know how it got to be like this, but if it was found, we all know what would have happened.

All the best,

Clive.
 
The iformation came from Michael Heidler book
Deutsche Fertigungskennzeichen bis 1945

Steve
 
Fuzeman wrote:
makers trigramme dlr = Geratebau Gmbh , Ruhla (T) Handfeuerwaffen- u - Zunder-Teille

Steve


wow, that book has info on dlr code?

that's great. I couldn't find it either.

is Deutsche Fertigungskennzeichen bis 1945 a book that is still available?
 
Hi Clive the book is still available if you go into Google and put the authors name in , or perhaps Amazon books or my usual book site is ABE Books

Steve
I bought my copy from michael himself late last year
 
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