105mm shell

[ydnum303]

Hi all,
This projectile is one that I acquired fairly recently. The seller could tell me little about it.
It is stamped as follows on the body:-
REQN NO B2 2208
ITEM NO 16
6/1971
285/D8
RLB

It was stencilled in white, but surface rust and storage for 30 years with a lot of other assorted projectiles means that some of the stencilling has become illegible or worn off, but what I have been able to decipher is:-
105M/M 7CALIBRE LONG
INERT. TS.569
ITEM 1 CY2/73
CSR/41/9

Alongside this, at right-angles, is GR2/008, and further towards the nose, lengthwise, is GR2(E)617

The body is 634mm long, and was filled with a hard-packed red clay-like substance.

Can anyone give me any information as to its purpose or design history, please?

Thanks in advance,
Roger.

 

[SG500]

That one looks familiar, I'm sure "Rrickoshae" had one for sale a few years ago.
Purple paint of course being British experimental.
Dave.

 

[flak18]

As it says along the bottom of your photo...105mm Fd HE experimental. This was experimental for High Capacity HE.

 

[ydnum303]

Thanks, Gentlemen,

I realised it was experimental, of course, but it was the purpose behind the experiments that I was curious about. If it was solely to design a shell with a greater HE capacity, that's fine, but a heavier shell would have required a bigger propelling charge to get similar ballistics to the existing HE projectiles. This would have produced higher pressures in the gun, and presumably required a stronger barrel. Even using this shell with the existing cartridge, and accepting a lower velocity and a shorter range would still have produced a higher barrel pressures. Were they looking to design a new gun or use the existing. Were the experiments successful? Did this elongated shell ever make it into Service?

Regards,
Roger.

 

[Rrickoshae]

Thanks, Gentlemen,

I realised it was experimental, of course, but it was the purpose behind the experiments that I was curious about. If it was solely to design a shell with a greater HE capacity, that's fine, but a heavier shell would have required a bigger propelling charge to get similar ballistics to the existing HE projectiles. This would have produced higher pressures in the gun, and presumably required a stronger barrel. Even using this shell with the existing cartridge, and accepting a lower velocity and a shorter range would still have produced a higher barrel pressures. Were they looking to design a new gun or use the existing. Were the experiments successful? Did this elongated shell ever make it into Service?

Regards,
Roger.

hi Roger, as I understood it from 'someone who knows', this experiment was to try and establish whether it would be possible to use a 105mm high capacity shell fired from a light gun type weapon which would be able to undertake the duties then carried out by 105mm & 155mm guns. Whether the gun was to be the 105mm light or a new weapon I do not know. And as far as I could establish, the trials were not successful and were terminated. My own feeling is that the shell was too long for its calibre and would have a tendency to tumble. Strangely, it was not a new idea. Before i obtained the shell metioned by Dave, I saw an almost exact same thing in the RMCS Shrivenham - only it was a WW2 German experimental shell! Dave

 

[ydnum303]

Dave, many thanks for that. The shell is naturally rather heavier than the "normal" 105mm HE, so I imagine it would have needed a much sharper rifling twist in the gun to be stable in flight. Seems to have been a lot of effort for not much return!

Regards,
Roger.