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British mechanical timed fuzes. 208 and 211

THarrison

Member
Hi all,

Recently purchased another 208 for my collection and stripped it down today. The mechanism and body stamps have raised a couple questions that I hope someone can shead some light on.

The body is stamped "208 Mk1 BUS 45 Lot AE" and the serial number "86327"
My thinking with this is that the E (which is later stamped) is for Experimental(?)
The time mechaism inside turns out to be stamped with the matching serial number, 1942 (so 3 years previous) and "211-08". Also a small anchor and "77" stamped on the side.

What is the 211-08? Is this a 211 time mechanism? I assumed they would be the same.
Also could this possibly mean an experimental naval use to the fuze?

Thanks for any help you can give.

PS. Still on the hunt for complete 207/211 :)

Tom
 

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208 BUS - Identifies the fuze as a 208 manufactured by ROF Blackburn utilising an American manufactured time mechanism. In this instance, the mechanism was manufactured by WCCo - Waterbury Clock Company, Waterbury, Connecticut (but apparently from 1941 was actually Timex).

TimG

The "Lot AE" is possibly a corrupted "Empty Series Lot" number or something unique to Blackburn fuzes with US mechanisms. It does not follow Lot number convention for this period.
 
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