13 Pounder Shrapnel Shell - US Manufactured, 1917 Dated, Presentation Piece

[M8owner]

I got the projectile off ebay. Sorry, if I outbid you. It came with the piece of paper describing it. Obviously, a keepsake given out at this dinner of US armament contractors for the British government. Did I mate it to the correct shell casing?

 

[Vasco Da Gama]

Good Evening, I would offer that you have selected the wrong case. The projectile is marked as a 13pdr rather than 3in. Although the 13pdr is 3in/76mm they were very different guns. The 3in 20cwt started out life with the Royal Navy and then became a very useful land based anti- aircraft gun, seeing service into WW2. The practise projectile I have is around 16lbs in weight. The 13pdr started life as the gun for the Horse artillery being lighter than the 18pdr. These guns used shrapnel shells fitted to a straight case 313mm long (13pdr 6cwt). In the search for a good anti-aircraft gun the British necked down the 18pdr case to fit the 13pdr projectiles delivering better performance (13pdr 9cwt) being 295mm long. From the age of your shell and the discussion on anti-aircraft performance I would suggest you need a 13pdr 9cwt case. Never a simple answer when talking to the Brits!