Vickers 4.5" Mk 6 shell cases?

[Benjum]

Hello all.

I had a good friend for a short time who sadly passed away suddenly a few years ago. Ric served in the Merchant Navy and then the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, seeing action in the South Atlantic during the Falklands conflict. Some time after his passing, a few items were handed to me - perhaps for the interest I had shown when seeing them, perhaps because of my trade when serving in the Royal Navy......

If I remember the story correctly, the two cases came from HMS Glamorgan after a period of Naval Gun Support (NGS), shelling Argentine shore positions. I know that the Glamorgan was a County class guided missile destroyer (Sea Slug) and it did see action during the conflict. The County class were beautiful looking ships (my opinion) and I had some trade training aboard HMS Kent (a sister ship) in the early nineties when she was a harbour training vessel at Portsmouth. She was subsequently scrapped - a tragedy.

I have little knowledge of earlier 4.5" gunnery systems as I was trained of the single Mk 8 system and hoped that someone out there would kindly fill in the gaps. The photos are not great as they were taken a while ago. They need cleaning and preserving. I have just spotted a blog about cleaning brass and will give it a read.

Many thanks,

Benjum.

 

[TimG]

The history of the 4.5 is somewhat complicated if I remember correctly it went QF fixed, QF separate, QF fixed, QF separate? To complicate matters when they went QF separate, there was a large stock of QF fixed projectiles - they had cannelures below the dring band, these were used with the QF separate cases.

In the early part of the last century, 4.5 was considered the break point at which a man could be expected to handle a naval QF fixed round.

The first round appears to have filled ROF Glascoed March 73, I would be surprised if it was unfired until the Falklands.

It's the first naval store that I seen marked N*A* - N1A1.

The second is marked practice.

TimG

 

[Benjum]

This is very interesting info Tim, thank you. I have just been reading about that Royal Ordnance Factory at Glascoed during WW2.

There was always a chance that my friend was 'spinning a dit' which is a naval phrase for telling a tall story for a bit of fun..... Sailors have always done this! I am sure he was there as I was also passed his South Atlantic Medal, pay books and a commemorative glass tankard. So, the jury is still out on this one. Would these cases have been returned for refilling or just dropped over the side? I would have thought that obturation and neck damage from ejection from the turret would have made reuse difficult. I did also wonder how he would have got them home.....