4.2in Smoke with strange design

[MINENAZ16]

Hello,

This shell has a very strange design ; is it a WW2 round ?

What means Smoke B.E.D.S (doc) ?

And for the others what means Smoke F.M. and C.S.A.M.

Thanks.

Best Regards.

 

[Slick]

Looks like somebody got carried away with sticking assorted bits and pieces together. Pretty cool, actually.

 

[HAZORD]

It is the UK design to be able to use the 81mm/3 inch mortar BE smoke cannisters and be able to deliver them with the 4.2 inch mortar.

 

[peteblight]

Hazord is correct. It's full and complete name is Bomb, S.B, M.L, Smoke, B.E, DS, 4.2 Inch Mortar, MK 1/L
This mortar contained 2 x No 7 smoke containers. Just below the No 390 fuze was a 1gr gunpowder expulsion charge. The tail had an additional 6 vanes halfway along the tube for additional charges, dependant on the range.
This mortar was originally known as the Frankfurtar and had a maximum range of 4100 yards.

As for the letters;

Smoke B.E.D.S = Base Ejection Discarding Sabot

FM = Titanium Tetrachloride

CSAM = Chlorosulphonic Acid Mixture - 50% Chlorosulphonic Acid and 50% Sulphur Trioxide.

Both of these are liquid smoke agents. On contact with air/moisture they give off a dense white smoke.

Here's a couple more pictures/drawings.

Cheers

Pete

 

[MINENAZ16]

Hi,

Very nice Pete !!

Thank you very much everybody.

Cheers.

 

[horsa]

That's the round from my personal collection. Course the photo has been flipped 180 degrees from how I have it shown on my web site....

 

[MINENAZ16]

Hi,

Thank you Horsa for the picture, I found it with google !

Cheers

 

[horsa]

It's all good, I was just jerking your chain :tinysmile_twink_t2: Photos from my web pages and from my Tommy book series are always turning up somewhere on the net. Not an issue as long as you aren't claiming to have that exact item (as pictured) for sale. You might be surprised how often we've seen this happen, particularly from vendors in India so buyer beware.