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UK finds August 2013

AMMOTECHXT

AMMOTECHXT

Well-Known Member
Ordnance approved
Premium Member
As well as some of the more usual 25 Pr Smoke BE and remains of 117 and 119 fuzes there was also (most of) a prehistoric wooden henge - photo 13. Photo 3 shows some posts near the henge that may be of a similar age. Photo 6 shows a BE shell adapter with remains of attached No 221 fuze, the threads still have luting attached. Photo 7 shows a BE shell where the driving band has separated at the factory-made join. Photo 9 shows a stretch of prime finding area, where a lot of the lumps in the photo are actually rusty pieces of shrapnel. Photo 11 shows remains of solid shot (AP) shell. Nearby were some copper strip remains of modern (1975 dated) bulk demolition slabs. I can only assume that the EOD staff tasked to the shells didn't really know what they were and applied some explosive, `Just in case'. CNV00017.JPGCNV00024.JPGCNV00023.JPGCNV00022.JPGCNV00021.JPGCNV00020.JPGCNV00019.JPGCNV00018.JPGCNV00013.JPGCNV00014.JPGCNV00015.JPGCNV00016.JPGCNV00025.JPG
 
Hi AMMOTECHXT,Thanks for posting pics,in pic 7,is that a 20mm hispano case near the nose of the large projo,
Regards and thanks,
Don,
 
I can't see well enough on the photo but I think it was a .50 case. I find many more of those than I find 20 mm Hispano and many more .303 than I find .50. I found a cracking condition 20 mm HS case earlier this year. Normally they are encrusted in sand and the metal is thinned and pockmarked by `de-zincification' but that one had a small piece of rusted steel attached. The result was that it still looked its proper brass colour, had not thinned and was not pockmarked. I can only suppose that there is some kind of stabilising influence from the steel, in an electro / chemical way. Happily this also seems to apply to the fuzes I find - blown 117 and 119 and expended 221 - probably because of the steel springs used in those fuzes and, in the case of the No 221, they are still attached to their parent shell. Most of the SAA cases (they are almost all WW2 vintage) I find are now in too poor condition to be worth doing anything more with than scrapping them.
 
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Hi AMMOTECHXT,Thanks for info,could the effect on the non corroded cases be similar to the effect of the sacrificial ingots welded to ships hulls below the waterline to attract corrosion thus preventing the hull from rusting,
Thanks,
Don,
 
Probably so. I wonder who first noticed that and thought to apply it.
 
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