1917 Canadian 13PDR?? - Not sure on this...

[MikeS0000]

Hi Folks!

Picked this up at a local shop. It is stamped "D.C.P. Co." which, if correct is a Canadian Mining Company.

Seems they made 13PDR cartridges, but this one measures 75mm. x 277mm. and lacks any Broad Arrow stamps. Looks like it was reloaded a couple of times, so maybe that has something to do with it.

It has a shallow crimp about 1.5"s below the lip.

Thanks for looking, if any of the stamps can't be read, let me know.

- Mike

 

[TimG]

D.C.P. Co. Dominion Copper Products Co., Ltd., Montreal, P.Q. Canada.
75 x 277R manufactured I believe for Russia/Serbia. Only year of Canadian manufacture was 1917 and just over 800K cases were made.
I think the EP on the primer is Ecole Pyrotechnique, Antwerp, Belgium.

TimG

 

[MikeS0000]

Thank you Tim!

That is most interesting. I never would have come up with that history. Do you think the fuzes were pre or post war? I have one of the 75mm. Presentation Shells from the American Can Co., where three generations of my family (including myself in my early years) worked. My understanding is that they were also Russian Contracts, at least the shell or cartridge, and mated together for gifts to I don't know who.

Best regards!
- Mike

D.C.P. Co. Dominion Copper Products Co., Ltd., Montreal, P.Q. Canada.
75 x 277R manufactured I believe for Russia/Serbia. Only year of Canadian manufacture was 1917 and just over 800K cases were made.
I think the EP on the primer is Ecole Pyrotechnique, Antwerp, Belgium.

TimG

 

[TimG]

Following some more research, I realised the cases made for Russia were 76.2 x 385R not 75 x 277R. This case was made for the Belgian Government. -

CANADA: 75-mm cartridge cases for Belgian Government - http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3262095

Some research on Ecole Pyrotechnique resulted in finding this website - http://www.fortdehollogneliege.be/page8.html which describes some of their war effort. What caught my eye was the following -

“On the 13th of October, 1914, the Minister of War, anxious to assure the Belgian artillery of the ammunition which it most needed, ordered Commander Blaise of his military cabinet to go to the harbor. Commandant Blaise was ordered to set up workshops to carry out the shortening operations that the shell casings of 75 French shells must undergo before they can be used by the Belgian canons.”

The nearest French case I can find is 75 x 350R which has an 87mm diameter rim, whereas the 75 x 277R has a 90mm diameter rim. Is the 75 x 350R the case the Belgians were shortening?

Mike - presumably wartime manufacture.

TimG

 

[Gspragge]

I had a French case that was shortened, it's on a post here someplace. A thin washer was also added to the base as the French
rim was a bit too narrow to extract properly in the Belgian guns. I also posted a similar Canadian made 75mm case made for Belgium
in 1917 that was made into Axis Trench art in or about 1944.

 

[TimG]

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/95006-Belgium-Canister

The French 75 mm M 1897 is shown as 75 x 350R but with a 87mm rim not 84mm.

TimG

 

[MikeS0000]

Hi Gents!

I'm trying to find out which Belgian artillery piece this shell with the 90mm. base would have been used in.

May have missed it in some of the links and responses... still working off a concussion from an accident in September. I've come up with two possibilities,

- 75mm. Krupp Commercial (!) M-1905
- 75mm. 'canon de 75 de campagne mle. 1897' - The Model 1897.

And somewhere I read that either one of these, or a different 75mm. piece, was also modified by the Belgians near the end of the war. No indication of the mod though!

Best regards!
- Mike

 

[mdot633]

That's a case for the Krupp 7.5cm M1903 gun. It was used a numerous countries over a number of years. For some reason that exact case (with the DCP markings) is very common. I have two marked the same and have seen a handful of others. I believe it's actually 75x275R but I could be off by a few mm.

 

[MikeS0000]

It is interesting that it is a common case. This one has apparently been loaded twice. There is a very shallow crimp(?) about 1.5"s from the rim.