BE smoke shell base?

[Stuka]

Hiya,

At the beginning of this year I made a small metal detecting trip to the Belgian Ardennes.
Not a lot of interesting finds, except for this 'thing', which reminds me of the steel base for a BE smoke shell, or maybe a base plate for a HE shell?
Luckily, there are still some markings visible, however these don't really help me in identifying this thing.
Maybe some of you can help me?

Thomas.

 

[AMMOTECHXT]

Hi Thomas, a central hole does not fit with a base plate for a HE shell - the reason for a base plate for a HE shell is so that propellant gases cannot follow the `grain' of the steel and propagate the HE filling when the shell is fired. The only BE shell that I am familiar with is the 25 Pr - the base plates were machined with two shallow holes to enable use of a tool to screw the base plate onto the shell. UK 105 mm Fd may have been similar but I never saw any of those. Is your piece of metal threaded around the edge? A central hole would indicate to me the presence of a tracer. Is the hole internally threaded?

 

[Stuka]

Thanks for your reply, I already had a thought about my HE base plate hypothesis last night, and I came to the same conclusion as it would be quite useless to mark a base plate on both sides when you won't see one side ever again. So it was probably more or less removable I think.

I can't make out any threading around the edge:


The central hole is threaded:

 

[Yodamaster]

Why are you thinking it is a baseplate ? What are the dimensions ?


Yoda

 

[Stuka]

It measures 12.7cm/5" in diameter and 2.54cm/1" in thickness,
A BE shell base is just the first thing that came to my mind due to its circular shape.
Also, it's not really flat but a bit bulged, probably deformed by an explosion.

 

[Stuka]

This summer I returned to the same spot and luckily I found another part.
Now I've cleaned all the rust and crud off, but I still don't have a clue...
It is just a hollow tube without any markings, a driving band or other giveaways as to what it may have been, apart from the exploded end.
Any thoughts?

The length is roughly 16"/41cm and the diameter 5,5"/14cm.








Base fits exactly.


The edge is folded to secure the base.

 

[HAZORD]

It might be the canister that contains an illuminating candle and parachute inside an illuminating projectile. They have a hole in the middle to let the flame from the expulsion charge light the candle upon ejection.

 

[AMMOTECHXT]

The metal of the tube looks too thin to be the wall of an artillery shell - it simply would not withstand firing stresses. so then you're left with possibilities of it being an internal component of a shell or part of something else, such as a mortar (much lower firing stresses than an artillery shell), or something completely different. Not so sure of Hazord's suggestion - the way the metal is damaged isn't consistent with a store designed to eject a parachute flare - a bit too much explosive overkill. Let's hope someone can identify it, it would be interesting to know what it is.

 

[Stuka]

The metal of the tube looks too thin to be the wall of an artillery shell

Indeed, and it is also lacking a driving band, unless that would have been the exploded part. So my thoughts went to a rocket of some kind as well.

Let's hope someone can identify it, it would be interesting to know what it is.

After asking a few friends, I got some clue:
It seems to be a section of a 15cm Nebelwerfer rocket. These were widely used in the Ardennes, thin walled, diameter is around 5,5"...
Unfortunaly, I don't own a Nebelwerfer rocket to check it, but it sure looks like the green motor part in this image. Also fits in with the exploded side of the thing.