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German Naval Shell

O

orcutteod

Well-Known Member
Picked up this 37mm Imperial German Naval shell with a base fuse projectile. I wondering if indeed this is a German projectile. All other German Navy projectiles in my collection have a C/M Naval acceptance stamp on the projectile. This one has no markings of any kind.
 

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Your case is Imperial German Navy, but your shell is much more recent, being, I think, the 3.7cm M1917 Leuchtspurgeschoss (tracer), used mainly against WW1 planes. The design is a simplification of it's Navy counterpart. If I remember rightly, it was painted green above the driving band.
 
Shells shown with correct crimping and green colour above driving band.
Lichtspur plug also illustrated - base closing plug normally encountered out of zinc.
What is interesting is that beneath the Lichtspur plug, the tracer material is stamped with the Kaiserlicher Crown!


IMG_4236 (2).jpgIMG_4237 (2).jpg
 
Please correct me if I am wrong, I thought the M1917 projectile was the one with the tapered driving band developed for the Sockelflak? - the one on the left with green paint above the driving band.
IMG_4238 (2).jpg
 
Hi Pysall, spot on, you are absolutely right, what Orcutteod shows is indeed the 1918 model, which is the "ersatz" version of the 1917 model, with a tapered body and a smaller driving band in order to save copper. Btw, you have a very nice example of the not so common 1917 model.
I found a few 1918 shells mounted on earlier cases, so it's possible this shell and the case were originally together. The Germans were short on everything and heavily reloading any serviceable cases and it's quite possible older cases were reloaded with much more recent projectiles.
 
Hello,
Interesting post.
It 's the first time I see the shell with large driving band.
You talk about models 1917 and 1918.
Do you have documentation where years of models are mentionned ?
I only know common doc on 3.7cm Lspurgr L2.5 or 3.7cm Lspurgr St. Never seen year of models.
Regards
 
I have no idea where the M1917 and M1918 data came from regarding the differing driving band widths. None of the shells I have possess dates, only monograms and Sp numbers.
It might have been something that Gspragge posted in the past.....? hope I have remembered his moniker correctly !
 
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