1890's 6" Mark IV BL Projectile Time Fuse

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Drew,
Interesting, but I have read that RL iwth the broad arrow between stood for Royal Laboratory at Woolwich Arsenal.
Regards,
John

[Dronic69]

Hi Bart,

Yep - you are 100% correct!!! It is Royal Laboratory

[That will teach me "posting" late at night!]

Cheers
Drew

[Dronic69]

It is much older than I thought.
I found it on a battle site in Hong Kong, and due to the fluidity of the fighting and location, I can pretty much date it as being use on 24 Dec '41 (give or take 24 hrs).

IMO it was probably was used by the British during the Boxer Rebellion (~1900) or slightly later (next decade or two) after Britain annexed HK.

It may just be a coincidence that it was dug up on a later battle ground which was used when HK felled to the Japanese in 1941 - its a pity the nose cone is so rusted as it may have provided a better indication of the gun calibre............maybe there were some old obsolete working guns with ammo available and lets face it if you were being invaded and overrunned.............

Have you compared the condition to other items found on the same battle site?

Cheers
Drew

[Banny]

Thanks for the continuing support lads.
The area where I found the No.56 (4c looks right as the scale does go to about 18) was only a tiny fishing Village in about 1900 and there was no fighting in this area until WW2.
I did find a couple of other related items close by, A ball baring and what looks to be a filler screw cap, which I hope one of you gentlemen will be able to ID.
On the Cap is written
Top Half: USE WRENCH OR PLIERS TO OPEN
Bottom: ?? C B Q ??? , DECANTOR , FILL

I did also find a load of other WW2 items:
80 odd .303 shells (dating between 1930-41)
A couple of Grenade firing cartridges
.45 Cals for both Tommy and Colt Pistol
Some Pat.37 webbing fastenings
and strangely only a single Japanese 6.5mm round

Not a bad couple of hours, especially as it is only just cooling down enough to hit the hills, you just need to keep an eye out for snakes.
Thanks again.
IMGA0154.jpg

[Banny]

After a little bit of research, I believe the No.56 fuze (above) was used on a 18 pounder.
I found the fuze in the hills just behind the place of the Allies last stand on Christmas Day '41. During the final days the Allies only had 3 artillery pieces serviceable in the main fort about 1.6km away, 2x 3.7 Inch Howitzers and a single 18 pounder (I think we did also have a couple of 2 pounder Anti-tank guns).
Despite the apparent age of the Fuze (dec 1899) I am sure it was used in the final days/hours of the battle. Most odd.
Talking about outdated equipment, I have also found a Japanese 11mm Murata round in an area which saw the fiercest fighting of the whole battle. The Murata was first used in 1885 and was even thought to be obsolete during the Japanese-Russian war in 1905-6. However some poor bastard was issued it for use in China/Hong Kong up until at least the end of 1941.
Thanks agin for your help, I hope I didn't "Hijack" this forum.
Regards

[Dronic69]

You'll require a little more "research" on this if you believe it is from an 18 pdr shrapnel shell!

These links will help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance_BLC_15_pounder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance_QF_18_pounder

Have a close examine of the diagrams and then compared to what you have dug up - compared the No 56 to the No 80 fuse - have a close look at the thread sizes!!!

Cheers
Drew