ID help please

[Burney Davis]

The pictures below are of three 75mm projectiles. The one on the left is, I believe, Austrian. It is marked with M15a on the fuze and M15 on the projectile

I have assumed that the other two are Italian, but possibly two different marks. However, the base markings are completely different. Is it just a different manufacturer?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bever]

Not sure about this ,

but the one with the triangle & kt b&m marking is I believe Italian manufacture , the other one could be Austro-Hungarian manufacture , possibly made for Italy.

I’ve been wondering the same about the 7,5cm M15 Shrapnell round , the driving band differences , aswell as Markings. Yugoslavia used them too , aswell as the Czechs.

interesting stuff really!

 

[Alpini]

first of all, are you sure all three are 75 mm or may be 76,5 mm?

 

[Burney Davis]

Well, I'm guilty of a school boy error! I had in the past measured the 'Austrian' one on the left (which is 74mm) and had assumed the other's were the same, so 75mm. Having checked with a verier gauge the one is definitely 74mm and the other two are 76mm. So what do I have here and what cases would they fit too?

 

[Alpini]

Then both are some of the following:

8 cm M.13/15a (not sure, but may be a thick walled cast iron shell - Fert, where are you?)
8 cm M.15/15a (with prefragmented rings inside)
8 cm M.17/15a (without prefragmented rings inside)

possible cases are 76,5 x 230R (separate) or 76,5 x 284R (cartridge).

Italy used these guns + ammunition which they got after war. But I couldn't imagine why Italy should have continued the production of the Austrian shells. Also a good question for @fert!

I think also the shell with the triangle is made in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Italian shells are stamped much different. There are no lists known about Austro-Hungarian shell factories and their logos but it should have existed much more than hundred of them.

The left shell is a 7,5 cm M.15/15a for the 7,5 cm M.15 mountain gun.

 

[Burney Davis]

Many thanks Alpini, that's great.

The shell on the left does have frag rings, the one in the center doesn't but the one on the right does. The frag rings are interchangeable between each of the shells, a perfect fit which also threw me.