Unknown Japanese Navy arsenal (or is it Maizuru after all)?!?

[ogreve]

Hi,

Recently I managed to acquire 3 tall IJN casings, being one 127x581R and two 120x709R specimens. The latter two went to Germany for a while, for repairs. Now... just this morning they were handed over to me, and something I already thought to have seen in the pictures I already had of the items, was confirmed by me this morning: the arsenal mark seems to be off, as per what is known about IJN arsenals producing ammunition!

Common knowledge has it that the following manufacturers are known for IJN ammo:
-Asahi (contractor)
-Dainippon (contractor)
-Kure arsenal
-Yokosuka arsenal
-Sasebo arsenal
-Maizuru arsenal
-Toyokawa arsenal

However.... all of the above use different markings than the arsenal anchor present on my two 120mm casings! Maizuru comes closest, with an anchor with a superimposed capital 'M'. Mine follow the same style, but.... unless I'm misreading the 'M' I am actually quite convinced that the letter present on both cases is actually a capital 'H' !

I haven't got very extensive references on IJN arsenal markings, but Wikipedia shows something of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiro_Naval_Arsenal

Apparently there once was a 'Hiro' Navy arsenal; located at Kure! No ammunition manufacture is associated with it, however, and I haven't been able to find a drawing of their arsenal mark (if different from Kure).

Does anyone have a list showing more arsenal markings than the above mentioned IJN arsenals?

Alternatively: can someone add some pictures of actual Maizuru headstamps, to compare them against mine, and to see if the 'M' perhaps looks like an 'H' ?

I have attached an image of one of the headstamps. I will make better pictures later (hopefully within a few days).

I hope someone can tell me something about this in the meantime...

Cheers,
Olafo

 

[ogreve]

Hi again,

I looked a little bit further amongst some of the pictures I have of other people's collections. I came across two more specimens with the same style headstamp and I came across no specimen with an anchor showing a distinct letter 'M'. Could it be the 'H' is actually an 'M' after all?

Shown calibres (measured):
-75x211R (Probably officially: 76,2x212R).
-127x480R

Anyone any ideas????

Cheers,
Olafo

 

[BOUGAINVILLE]

Hi Olafo

Here are the some of the known Japanese Naval Arsenal marks. Maizuru I feel is a definate M. H could be another arsenal, the big question is, is it Hiro or another arsenal?

Cheers,
Robert

 

[ogreve]

Thanks Robert,

Yes, the above drawing is what I know about it too.... Indeed the 'M' is a clear 'M' here. The aforementioned casings definitely show an 'H' with a fully horizontal bar. Interesting!
One thing should be noted: the above table, coming from Ken Elks' work, may be aimed solely at ammunition up to (inclusive) 40mm. The (by me) seen casings with the 'H anchor' are all bigger than that. Possibly this explains why it is not listed in Ken's book. Having said (written) that, I'm not 100% certain from the top of my head if Maizuru did or did not also produce anything up to 40mm, or whether they also mainly/solely made the really big stuff.

Cheers,
Olafo