Toffee Apple

[Guest Glenn Harper]

Hi all, at the risk of making a total fool of myself I'd like to know whether or not the accompanying photo shows the remains of a toffee-apple mortar bomb. I've looked fairly extensively at other pictures, and the markings on it don't help my inexperienced eye, i.e no evidence of a middle band or any visible lettering, and there seem to be top-to-bottom markings or ribs on it which I haven't seen elsewhere. I noticed it in a field near the Arras Rd Cemetery.

[vectisitch]

thats definately a toffee apple,you can see where the stick has broken off

[Old Tom]

I think that this could be a 2" mortar bomb. The 2" refering to the stick which was put in the barrel of the mortar.

Old Tom

[centurion]

thats definately a toffee apple,you can see where the stick has broken off

Actually its not the stick that's broken but the rather substantial socket into which it fitted (see photo of one being loaded ). This was fairly substantial but it's been shattered

Of the three types of toffee apple round Krupp Trench Howitzer, Vickers Trench Howitzer and 2 in Mortar) none of the photos of rounds I have seen show longitudinal grooves. I wonder if the one in your photo was a 2 inch Chemical round (gas or smoke) and it was supposed to split open on impact

[Guest Glenn Harper]

Thanks very much for these responses, which have helped me make sense of my own picture!

Seems like the barrel of the bomb has sheared off completely, although it's unclear to me when this would be most likely to occur - whether 95-odd years ago or damaged when ploughed up. The break seems pretty clean.

Anyway, thanks again.

[tipperary]

is the socket not visible touching ground the break at top looks very recent (no rust)john

[centurion]

is the socket not visible touching ground the break at top looks very recent (no rust)john

No that's the fuse (still intact) the break on the socket might have been caused by whatever turned the (possibly still live) munition up. I wouldn't go near it for all the malt in Islay.