Another ID please. I assume this is and instructional smoke pot but can anyone recognise what it's for? Measures approx. 7.5cm in diameter.
British Ordnance Collectors Network
Join over 14,000 collectors of inert military ordnance. Get expert identification help for shells, fuzes, grenades, and more — plus access our classifieds marketplace and decades of archived knowledge. Free to register, takes seconds.
Identification 6
- Thread starter Burney Davis
- Start date
markyakyak
Active Member
Not 25 pdr they are 6.5cm
Any more thoughts guys?
Working on the basis that it's 2.90" diameter you have a choice of No. 11, or No 12, Container, Smoke, BE, the difference is in the length. The No. 4 is also 2.90" in diameter but only 2.48" long.
No. 11 - 4.95" long
No. 12 - 4.53" long.
Alas, I can't assist with which either was used.
TimG
No. 11 - 4.95" long
No. 12 - 4.53" long.
Alas, I can't assist with which either was used.
TimG
ummmm.... It is exactly 3.5 inches in length ....
I would say that this is from Shell 105mm Pack How or System 2 BE Smoke,if this is from a UK source.
There may be little in the way of markings and they do not appear in lists of components in in-service publications because they cannot be removed or changed.
The only hope is that someone has design source drawings or data.
There may be little in the way of markings and they do not appear in lists of components in in-service publications because they cannot be removed or changed.
The only hope is that someone has design source drawings or data.
Would you mind having another look for a mark? A part number (typically SX999 or similar) is often stamped on the closing washer but paint or varnish can obscure it.
I can find nothing at all on this, nothing even resembling one I'm afraid.
25thapril
Well-Known Member
Can't be 4.2 just checked one in my collection and it is 87mm dia
You beat me to it. The only SBML 4.2" Mortar BE Smoke was in fact a modified 3" ML mortar BE Smoke with a sabot fitted 4 & half inches from the top of the bomb and it was called Bomb SBML 4.2" B.E.D.S. standing for Base Ejection Discarding Sabot. This was made to match the range of the 4.2" HE Streamline bomb, which is tear shaped and goes considerably further than the original straight sided HE bomb. No full size 4.2" straight sided bomb could have matched the HE streamline bomb for range.
The shape of the smoke pot and the number of emission holes is very like that of the Shell 105mm Pack Howitzer BE Smoke (Italian) adopted by the British Army in about 1960.
The shape of the smoke pot and the number of emission holes is very like that of the Shell 105mm Pack Howitzer BE Smoke (Italian) adopted by the British Army in about 1960.
Last edited:
Thank you 25thapril for the 87mm dia of the SBML 4.2" Mortar Smoke BE. If you have not got the discarding sabot, which would make the dia about 105mm, the bomb, is incomplete. I knew that the bourellet on the 3" bomb for use with the 4.2" BEDS was cast larger than the other 3" bombs, to prevent the sabot, which fitted over it, from leaving the bomb behind on firing. The actual outside diameter tolerances, of the two identical sabot half rings, is given as between 2.082 and 2.084 inches.
There was a thread a while back, where I and others gave what information we could, to enable someone to make reproduction sabots. I believe it may have been in the US.
There was a thread a while back, where I and others gave what information we could, to enable someone to make reproduction sabots. I believe it may have been in the US.