Grey 18 pdr

[Gspragge]

I just picked up this grey painted 18 Pr. I show it beside a black painted example.
Both are dated 1917. Why would one be grey at all ? Some of the grey looks like it
is in the release stamps ? It sure looks original to me, has any one seen another ?
The wood plug came in it but is just too loose to fit the threads so I don't know
what it was really for, has any one seen another ? I have seen a grey painted wartime made 15pr projectile
but nothing else.

Does anyone have any ideas on this.

 

[TimG]

Confusing

Grey indicates a chemical filling. However, some 13, 15 & 18 PR shrapnel were painted 'Slate' which is open to interpretation. As far as I'm aware, for that period, the yellow filling ring indicates a target shell. Are there any stampings around the top of the projectile? Over the past 99 years the original colour may have changed.


TimG

 

[doctor]

Hi
the shrapnel shell Mk 1 to 3 are painted grey and after black when chemical shell were producing

 

[Gspragge]

The Orange is as far as I have heard red which has changed over time , a yellow band I think would be
different. Chemical 18prs are as far as I know HE bodies with a side filling hole. Slate would very likely be a grey colour
of some form. My other concern was grey in the release stamps - but this does look original and not any form of
repaint. Has any one seen the wood plug used elsewhere before ?

 

[TimG]

Gordon,

On the laptop I was using this morning that tip was definitely yellow! I can now see it's an orange, which as you say is more than likely an aged red. With what Doctor states, I think it can be assumed to be 18 PR Shrapnel with the early style body colour scheme. Are there any internals? What are the markings? I can only make out S Ltd.

TimG

 

[Gspragge]

Grey example
QF 18pr
lX
FS
S Ltd
15 8 17
VO
Numbers on the base

My black one;
A (back slash /) 11025 C broad arrow
QF 18 PR
lX
FS
N M & unclear Co
11 9 17
unclear E

The black one has the push plate, the other is empty.

If the 1906 18prs were black, when did they change to grey and
back to black ?

It seems confusing, are there other grey examples out there ? I didn't know
they existed until this one turned up.

 

[Snufkin]

There is mention of lead colour for some Shrapnel shell in the 1915 Treatise of Ammunition. A later edition would no doubt help with the later marks of shell.




Tom.

 

[Gspragge]

Makes some sense now, though it appears that a return
to black must have occoured in 1917 going by the dates of mine.
I guess that grey was kept on through Mks ll - lX at any rate.
The only ww1 made 15pdr projectile I have seen uses the 2"
thread and No 80 fuze and was Canadian made (some 300,000+
were made) as different from the drawing.