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Need help 3 Inch british mortar round

K

Kompani-linge

New Member
Hello, I am searching for info on how british world war two mortar rounds were marked with color and what the markings stand for on the body.
It is 3 inch rounds that is of interest to get info on.
There is one inert in a museum that has red ring/black and I think a white ring here in my city, this came from UK during ww2 in Norway
also what does CY 12-41 mean ?

Thanks for help :)

Rolf Gunnar Aanes
Norway
www.mosjoen-krigsminne-samling.com
 
Hi Rolf,
All i have is this document relating to 3" mortar rounds, as for the markings CY would be Chorley where it was filled and 12/42 would be December 1942 i think.
Best regards Weasel.

heb3.jpg
 
Thanks to Weasel and Spotter for the references above.

All types of 3 inch Mortar bomb from WW2 up to 1988 should have a natural metal finish covered in varnish. For HE bombs a red ring indicates the presence of an explosive filling whilst the green band is specific to the type of explosive filling, and on occasion the band will have the explosive type stencilled upon it.


Museum pieces may have been repainted since they were acquired and sometimes the markings may be incorrect.
 
The varnish is a type of shelac as it drys much quicker than the old fashion 1930/40 varnish and dries quick for production. You don't want to hold the production line up in bomb making because the varnish takes 24 hours to dry. The same shelac applied to Mills Bombs.
The band markings, green and red were applied with a brush with the bomb placed upright on a small turning table and the table turned by hand while the other hand held the brush steady in place, thus a formed even line. If you look at original examples the brush lines are not perfect but strait. The markings were done two ways, one, stenciling that was wrapped around the bomb and the paint applied with a stipple brush as how stencils should be done. The other was was to roll the bomb over a pre painted rubber stamp that printed the markings on. The bomb was rolled in a wooded guide by hand that kept the bomb strait to the lettering. If you look close at some bomb markings you will see that some marking don't have the stencil breaks in the lettering and numbers, thus done the other way.
 
A colour plate showing the use of varnish and other coloured markings on the 3 inch mortar.tinch1.jpg
 
Ok thank you for the collor example, I have one grenade that is marked with red ring and an white ring under, could have been yellow, but now it is white. This example I know is not repainted.
So my question is was this a live grenade or just a test grenade for practice shooting with Mortars ?
 
Interesting to know that the bomb was phospated or parkerized before varnishing.
 
I havent heard the term "parkerised" before. I take it this is named after the person that developed the process?
 
Sort of, there was an English pair who patented a phosphating process. The US rights were aquired by Parker, who further developed the process.

Tim
 
The white ring suggests that it is a 'method of functioning' ring, which in this case means bursting. This would suggest it is a 3" Smoke Bursting Bomb, White Phosphorous.

Tim
 
exat808 said:
I havent heard the term "parkerised" before. I take it this is named after the person that developed the process?
Click to expand...

The Parkerising term or name is refered to the use of phosphating a weapon in the firearms industry, a dark or light grey porus finish that is very durible that absorbs an oil coating, used on a lot of US military weapons during and after WW2, even the Germans towards the end of the war started to use it. The same process is also used in the paint industry known a phosphating, so the top paint finish doesn't need to have a primer or undercoat as the paint soaks and key's into the porus phosphate surface. Notice that some paint finishes have no red oxide primer underneath. The WW2 American M1 helmet had this process applyed as with many other things.
 
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