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25 Pr ?

B

blu97

HONOURED MEMBER RIP
Ordnance approved
When I was browsing my pictures I found these again and stil wondering. These where found in Cambodia and taken care of by EOD.
It are Brittish 25Pr projectiles but wat the heck are those French adapter/boosters doing on it, did the french ever used teh guns or made ammunition for it. Any ideas ??.
cambodia070.jpg
 
I agree with you the boosters where filled up with tnt and the bolts to recieve a detonator, but still that doesn,t explain the french booster adapter.
 
It is interesting to note that neither have driving bands. What makes you think they're 25lb? Hard to get an idea as to scale, but that thread looks considerably smaller than 2" or if it is, the proj' is a lot bigger than 25lb.

Tim.G.
 
First of all the measurments are the same as the 25Pr and the drivingband seat is brittish. As it is a long time ago we found i gues the thread is 24mm, about 1".becaus of the location I think that the were used by the vietcong as IED, but wy take all the trouble to fit a french booster adapter in it and not simply put an elecric detonator in it. Intresting to know, yhey were found in an pit togheter with 139 105mm wihte phosphours, 39 4,2" mortars pwp, 2 3,5"" pwp rockets and 2 american 20 Lb frag bombs all dating out of vietnam war era.
 
Just as a matter of interest, did all the other projectiles they were found with also have their driving bands removed ?

Also if they are 25 pounder they look like they have been forged with that nose cone adaptor as an integral part of the body, or is it just so rusty it looks like one unit ?
 
All projo's without driving bands but you see that all the time after a war, copper is mony.
The booster adapter is screwed in the projectiles, not forged.
Just an idea, is it possible that becaus cambodia was a french colony, and indochina was freed by the allies that the french got aid by the brits to build up there army overthere and converted these projectiles, just a tought.
 
Both the Australia and New Zealand had artillery units in SE Asia but as I have now discovered they were using 105mm. But, maybe they had 'Sextons' out there.

Tim. G.
 
Australia did have an adaptor that could be screwed into a 25pdr and could then take a detornator or boobytrap or switch. I have seen the adaptors with fuzes similar to that on a j mine (trip mech Aust Mk 1). Though the adapter is slightly I have attached a scanned document on it.
 
Image of document attached anyway (it was pdf and too big). Australian's used 105mm How in Vietnam and I think the New Zealanders used either 105mm or 5.5in and were generally attached (1 battery) to the Australian battery/regiment deployed. We did not serve in Cambodia. It is quite possible that the projectiles were remnants from WW2 where Australian Artillery 25 pdrs saw extensive service in Malaya and the pacific and the British saw extensive service in other parts of SE Asia (Burma, Thailand etc.).

The adaptor is slightly different and was cast in Aluminium from memory.
Trip_Mech__Aust__Mk_1_4_0001.png
 
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