37 mm - help welcome

[URG86-collector]

Hello everyone,

during a routine task we took over, among other things, an object that was heavily rusted, but was clearly a projectile. The x-ray showed that there was no functional fuze and no explosives inside. Unfortunately no matching case was found for the projectile.

overall length 101 mm
base diameter 34 mm
width at driving band 38 mm
weight 438 g



I suppose that the projectile belonged to a 37 mm x 94 R cartridge. After looking at the great photos in the gallery (many thanks once more especially to Gspragge), the driving bands make me suspect that it could have been a German projectile.

At first sight no markings or stamps were visible. After removing the rust I found at least one mark on the nose plug / fuze replacement. I read this as "FL", but of course I could be wrong.

By the way: The driving bands are copper. The nose plug has only a copper color. If you polish it slightly, it shows that it is brass (probably).

Now I am of course interested in what this marking means and what else can be said about this projectile. And if someone can answer these questions, then he will surely be found in this forum. :tinysmile_fatgrin_t

Many thanks in advance and best regards from Germany,

urg86-collector

 

[Alpini]

Yes, it's a German 3,7 cm Sprenggranate. It was used by the Marine and also land forces. Due to the markings I think yours is from land service. The stamp "FL" means Feuerwerkslaboratorium but there are normally more stamps, for example "FL SP". The small pointed brass nose piece is a home made part which doesn't belong to the shell. Originally the fuze is flat as in the attached drawing.

 

[URG86-collector]

Thank you very much for the information and identification!

What astonishes me is that the x-ray image does not show a clear cavern/hollow in the projectile, as it is required for a Sprenggranate. Of course one has to take into account that the outer shell of the projectile is quite thick (as your great technical drawing shows).

Could it possibly have been a practice-/exercise-/drill-cartridge?

This could also explain why the “fuze” (according to the X-ray) is only a simple screw and has no moving parts. I want to show the x-ray as well as soon as possible.

[FONT=&amp]Thanks and best regards back to Germany :tinysmile_fatgrin_t

urg86-collector
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[Alpini]

Thank you very much for the information and identification!
Could it possibly have been a practice-/exercise-/drill-cartridge?
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Drill shells are stamped "Ex" and practise shells are stamped with a large "arrow" (these were usually closed with a zinc plug). I would wonder if this shell isn't hollow inside.

The fuze in your shell is a real one but not the pointed nose piece. Such pointed nose ogives are very commonly found on german 3,7 cm shells which were turned into an inert souvenir. Because of the flat shape the owners thougt that the fuze is missing a top part and made phantasy ones. Because the fuze isn't threaded inside the pointed brass nose could be only pressed or glued into the fuze.

The original plunger in the fuze (brown color in the drawing) was made of wood and was secured by a thin copper shear wire.

The fuze is a 100% copy of the french Desmarest fuze.

 

[URG86-collector]

Thanks again !!

Very fascinating information. If the pointed nose ogive wasn’t factory made, it’s definitely great craftsmanship.

The arrow, which generally marks the German practice ammunition, we have on another specimen in our collection.



That is why I was so baffled by this grenade.

The reference to the materials helps, because wood (behind metal) is very difficult to identify on the X-rays we use.

I will be back on duty on Monday and will discuss with colleagues which method we will use to determine whether the grenade is hollow (or maybe even not :tinysmile_hmm_t.

A very exciting piece to me, so hopefully we can get certainty without damaging the object.

 

[URG86-collector]

I am always amazed at how much incredible expertise is available here in the forum.
After technical measures I found exactly what Alpini had already described/predicted in his posts.
(not that I had any reason to seriously doubt that Information :tinysmile_shy_t.

OF COURSE the 37mm - projectile
> is provided with a cavern (hollow),
> has a real fuze and not a replacement/dummy (even if the interior is missing)
> had a home made pointed nose ogive glued in the front later.

A real "souvenir grenade" .
(if I could, I'd click again on Alpini's replys for another 'Thank You')

Thanks again for the great help !

Best regards from Germany,
urg86collector