American 90mm M1/M2/M3 Guns in British service?

[Falcon]

Does anyone have any information about American 90mm guns in British service?

I found a 90mm case at the car boot sale this morning which has a broad arrow stamp as well as "CFB" on the headstamp. This suggests these guns were used by the British military. I was not aware of this before.

Does anyone have any more info on their use in British service?

Cheers
Falcon

 

[HAZORD]

Any chance of seeing a photo of the headstamp?

 

[Falcon]

The headstamp wouldn't show up in a photo, so I did a drawing.

The maker's mark is "RLB" which is ROF Birtley on British cases. However, the case has a very US made look to it. The primer hole is also sized to take US style primers. I have also seen 105mm M14 cases in the UK with the "RLB" stamp that are made in the same style.

What I would like to know is whether RLB is also by coincidence an American factory, or the cases were made in the USA for the UK RLB, or the UK RLB bought case production machinery from the USA.

 

[HAZORD]

There was no U.S. manufacturer that used RLB. The M19 case is the most common for 90mm guns, and was used for all projectiles listed in the book in 1950. There were other case model numbers that were used on the newer projectiles like the HEAT, and HEP-T (HESH) that were developed after 1950. It looks like you have a real U.K. manufactured case. It could have been intended for use in the Korean War.

 

[Falcon]

Thanks for the reply. ROF Birtley must have purchased a case production line from the USA, as the RLB cases in US calibres are almost identical to US made ones. Even the stamping die font is the same as for US made cases, so the stamps may have been ordered with the machinery.

From a bit of googling, I have so far turned up nothing on British use of 90mm guns.