Artillery Shell Primer Cover?

[Edwardc]

Guys, ID help needed, picked this up from the floor of an old german fort (feste) in the metz/thionville area of france. The fort was built between 1899 and 1907 and was used by germans in ww1, french after ww1 (storage only), germans in ww2, was attacked by the americans in ww2 and then abandoned.

I think its a transport cover to go on the bottom of the shell case so it cant be accidentally fired. There were hundreds and hundreds all piled in the corner of a room in an armoured battery.

I was wondering if anyone can help me identify what era its from, what shell it was used for and to which country it belonged.

i am unsure if its related to the fort itself and its guns, or from a later conflict.

i am assuming its WW2 era as that was the last time the fort saw action, but i suppose it could relate to the original for guns (still extant). The original guns were 6 x 10cm, and 2 x 77cm

This item is approx 12-13cm if a circle was drawn between the 3 'legs' so i assume it clips onto a shell similar to that size - could potentially be for the 10cm gun. I was in a armoured battery that had 3 identical guns, there was another the same (except massively blown up by the americans)

Its made of steel, has faint traces of light green or grey paint and the middle bit that would cover the primer is wood. A couple of marks are visible - a 1 and a bit of what is maybe a 3?.

Any help welcomed, or details of the shell it fitted on and era etc.

many thanks

ed

p.s the squares on the mat are 10mm each

p.p.s i have copied this thread to identifications aswell, hope thats not inconvenient

 

[Alpini]

Hello Edward,

yes it's a primer cover for german 10,5 cm cartridges. I think the marking is "AWS" + number.

The official name is "10 cm Schutzfeder" and earlier productions where made from brass with rubber protection pad (after war naval productions again were made from brass). It translates into something like a "protection spring". "Spring", because it's made from flexible material.

 

[Edwardc]

Hello Edward,

yes it's a primer cover for german 10,5 cm cartridges. I think the marking is "AWS" + number.

The official name is "10 cm Schutzfeder" and earlier productions where made from brass with rubber protection pad (after war naval productions again were made from brass). It translates into something like a "protection spring". "Spring", because it's made from flexible material.

THats brilliant thanks, why would wood be used? What era would that be from?
thanks

ed

 

[Alpini]

I think rubber was "Sparstoff" (scarce material/high-priority material) during war because it was not longer possible to import natural rubber. So they used it for more important things than primer protection covers. If I remember right even some of todays synthetic rubbers contain some percentage of natural rubber to improve it's characteristics. During war "Fritz Hofmann" invented a synthetic rubber but production stopped with the end of the war because of ist bad characteristics. It wasn't that flexible as natural rubber.

 

[Edwardc]

which war? ww1 or ww2?

interesting info though, thanks

 

[Alpini]

Of course 1st WW. In 2nd WW or between the wars such covers only existed for naval ammunition.