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.
No. 259, 120-MM, HE German
- Thread starter jvollenberg
- Start date
So its not a No. 259? I thought that designation might be incorrect ...
Joe
Joe
german artillery designations from around 1870 until end of 2nd World War left nearly unchanged. They always consist caliber in cm+ name of the projectile (Granate, Schrapnell, Karttsche, Hartgussgranate, etc.) and year of introduction. Just until around 1900 the letter "C/" was used as the prefix of the year. This "C" means "Construction" (today we write the word "Konstruktion"). Until 1914 the year numbers are a good indication of the explosive used:
< 88 = black powder,
exception number 83 = long gun cotton shells
88-01 = picric acid
> =02 = TNT (and later mixtures with TNT)
during WW1 everything was used as not enough TNT could be produced, it's not longer possible to have an indication of shell-filling from the shell designation
< 88 = black powder,
exception number 83 = long gun cotton shells
88-01 = picric acid
> =02 = TNT (and later mixtures with TNT)
during WW1 everything was used as not enough TNT could be produced, it's not longer possible to have an indication of shell-filling from the shell designation
Last edited: