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British 20 Pounder Smoke Complete Round for Centurian Tank - Found In US

M8owner

Well-Known Member
I have never seen a 20 pounder anything for sale in the US before, so I had to have it. I recognize the No. 221 time fuse is the proper one for a 25 pounder smoke round, so I assume this is the correct fuse for this round? I paid $400 for it with shipping included, and I think I got a bargain. Do any of our UK members have any spare smoke pots to go into it?
 

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I saw that on fleabay and made the guy an offer but he didn't want to ship it to new Zealand(it probably would have cost a lot anyway).that round would have been used on the centurion tank,one of the best tanks at the time.
 
M8,

Unfortunately, you've got a bit of a mix there.

The case is Australian - MF - Footscray, Australia, made in 1968.

The projectile was manufactured by - MO - Ordnance Factory Maribyrnong, Australia.

The primer is a No. 9 Mk III made by J.T. Boyd of Glasgow in 1943 and filled by ROF Bridgend in 1943. This is actually the wrong type of primer, the 20 pr used a No. 17, which was electric.

The fuze was manufactured by Raleigh Cycles of Nottingham - RC. The date appears to be 1941.

TimG
 
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Well, fortunate or unfortunate all depends on whether you are a glass is half full or half empty kind of person. I have a Vietnam war vintage Australian case and projectile - probably brought back to the US by a veteran of that conflict. That is just awesome to me. It had no primer, so I added one that I had laying around - we do not have a great selection of these over here. The fuse can go on my 25 pdr smoke round. I have a 117 that can fill in the hole for now. So, I seek a No. 17 primer and a No. 390 fuse. Does anyone have spares of these in the UK or Australia? May I also request that someone please post images from a British manual showing the correct configuration and components of this round?
 
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Strictly speaking the fuze should be a 390 Mk 1 which was graduated 1 - 23 seconds. The other marks of the period were for mortar use and have slower burning compositions, but any 390 would be a bonus these days.The case you have is a Mk 1 which was for the APCBC, APDS and DS/T Practice. What you should have is a Mk 2 case which was for the HE, BE Screening Smoke and the Coloured Smoke, but this is probably hard to find. The Coloured Smoke did not last long because there was no operational requirement.There is however one ray of sunshine - see plate.
 

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What I have to fill in the fuse hole is actually a No. 199. It is my understanding some of these were converted into No. 390's? I am sorry; your ray of sunshine escapes me? A rather routine situation for me.
 
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It took over a year, but the fuse has now been sorted.
 

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