Hi all. As with the shell I posted a few days ago, I was given this lid by a relative who visited the WW1 battlefields many years ago. It has sat in his shed ever since. I decided to clean it up by bathing it in lemon juice and was surprised to see that it appears to be made of copper. As the pics show it has six rivets on top. All my attempts to research this have failed, so can anyone hazard a guess? Unfortunately I don't know where it was found so have no idea as to nationality. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Copper Ammo Box Lid, WW1?
- Thread starter Spitace41
- Start date
I don't know what it would have contained but have an observation - your first photo shows two pieces on the top of the lid that look they were for suspension from a strap. So maybe the box was designed to be slung over a man's shoulder. If you get the chance to go round a war museum in France it would be worthwhile checking to see if there is anything similar on display, or take a photo to show and query the staff.
Thanks for the responses guys. Although I have just taken it out of the lemon juice and wiped it down, and it turns out its not copper at all! The copper color wiped right off, so it must have been caused by a reaction with the citric acid.
After quite a lot of research I think I have found out that it is the lid off the box that held stripper clips for the M1905 Puteaux machine gun, which was also used with the M1907 St. Etienne machine gun. Take a look at the pics on the link below (unfortunately it wont let me upload them to the forum).
http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1884
Thanks again for the replies.
After quite a lot of research I think I have found out that it is the lid off the box that held stripper clips for the M1905 Puteaux machine gun, which was also used with the M1907 St. Etienne machine gun. Take a look at the pics on the link below (unfortunately it wont let me upload them to the forum).
http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1884
Thanks again for the replies.
Attachments
And amazingly, I even own that one issue of SAR because of the Semi-auto Bren article, but hadn't seen that box. The US .30-06 (Cal. 30 M1) strips were 30 rounds, fit into a box that approximates the Colt-Vickers 250 round belt box, but two strips per section of the box, loaded from the "wide" side, not the end, and all bullets pointed DOWN, as a small block of wood, sort of triangle shaped, separates the bullet tips in each of the five sections.
Thanks,
Thanks,