German Shells

[Nathan Greenfield]

This already may have been covered in this Forum, but if so, I cannot find the post.

Does anyone know what the propellent was for German shells?

Was there a primer that went off when the lanyard was pulled, or did the entire charge go at once?

Do we know how long it took a shell (any of them) to traverse the barrels?

And, finally, do we know how many times these shells spinned on their rifled axis?

Thanks in advance.

Nathan

[johnreed]

Question 1. Propellant Cordite - Verkurztes Rohren-Pulver - Tubular Powder cut into short lengths. Ersatz Rohren-Pulver - Substitute for tubular Powder.

Question 2. The propellat was iniated by a primer which was struck by a firing pin.

Question 3. Depending on the length of the barrel 77mm Field Gun M96nA 2.102m, milliseconds with a muzzle velocity of 485m/sec.

Question 4. This I take to mean how many time the shell revolved in the bore of the weapon. This again is dependant on the length of the barrel and the pitch of rifling of the barrel, the same as the different pitch of the riling, the number of groves and the depth and width of the rifling, there is no standard between the different calibres of weapons.

John

[Nathan Greenfield]

John:

Than you muchly.

Such details are fascinating and make for great reading.

Cheers,

Nathan