Identification 6

[Burney Davis]

Another ID please. I assume this is and instructional smoke pot but can anyone recognise what it's for? Measures approx. 7.5cm in diameter.

 

[pzgr40]

Smoke pot for a 25 pounder smoke B.E. (Base Ejection)

 

[markyakyak]

Not 25 pdr they are 6.5cm

 

[Burney Davis]

Not 25 pdr they are 6.5cm

Yes, definitely too big for the 25pr smoke shells.

D

 

[Burney Davis]

Any more thoughts guys?

 

[TimG]

Working on the basis that it's 2.90" diameter you have a choice of No. 11, or No 12, Container, Smoke, BE, the difference is in the length. The No. 4 is also 2.90" in diameter but only 2.48" long.

No. 11 - 4.95" long
No. 12 - 4.53" long.

Alas, I can't assist with which either was used.

TimG

 

[Burney Davis]

ummmm.... It is exactly 3.5 inches in length ....

 

[TimG]

Sorry, nothing that length. It was either obsolete prior to 1945 or introduced post 1945.

TimG

 

[AE501]

I would say that this is from Shell 105mm Pack How or System 2 BE Smoke,if this is from a UK source.
There may be little in the way of markings and they do not appear in lists of components in in-service publications because they cannot be removed or changed.
The only hope is that someone has design source drawings or data.

 

[Bonnex]

Any more thoughts guys?

Would you mind having another look for a mark? A part number (typically SX999 or similar) is often stamped on the closing washer but paint or varnish can obscure it.

 

[25thapril]

4.2 inch base ejection smoke ????

 

[Burney Davis]

Would you mind having another look for a mark? A part number (typically SX999 or similar) is often stamped on the closing washer but paint or varnish can obscure it.

I can find nothing at all on this, nothing even resembling one I'm afraid.

 

[25thapril]

4.2 inch base ejection smoke ????

Can't be 4.2 just checked one in my collection and it is 87mm dia

 

[AE501]

You beat me to it. The only SBML 4.2" Mortar BE Smoke was in fact a modified 3" ML mortar BE Smoke with a sabot fitted 4 & half inches from the top of the bomb and it was called Bomb SBML 4.2" B.E.D.S. standing for Base Ejection Discarding Sabot. This was made to match the range of the 4.2" HE Streamline bomb, which is tear shaped and goes considerably further than the original straight sided HE bomb. No full size 4.2" straight sided bomb could have matched the HE streamline bomb for range.
The shape of the smoke pot and the number of emission holes is very like that of the Shell 105mm Pack Howitzer BE Smoke (Italian) adopted by the British Army in about 1960.

 

[AE501]

Thank you 25thapril for the 87mm dia of the SBML 4.2" Mortar Smoke BE. If you have not got the discarding sabot, which would make the dia about 105mm, the bomb, is incomplete. I knew that the bourellet on the 3" bomb for use with the 4.2" BEDS was cast larger than the other 3" bombs, to prevent the sabot, which fitted over it, from leaving the bomb behind on firing. The actual outside diameter tolerances, of the two identical sabot half rings, is given as between 2.082 and 2.084 inches.
There was a thread a while back, where I and others gave what information we could, to enable someone to make reproduction sabots. I believe it may have been in the US.