Shell casing 2

[tonisb]

Hello,

I am clearing out my mother's house here in South Africa and discovered that the shell casing that has stood on a shelf over the lounge curtain rail all my life had markings on the bottom. It belonged to my G. Grandfather.

The markings are:

AWS 12 (Google informs me this is Algemeine Werkstatt Spandau) AWS, in capital letters, letters joined up.

JULI 1898 (either side of a small circle presumably for manufacturing purposes)

AWS (the 's' is in lower case and in copperplate style)

48

I think my grandmother cut down it's height to make a flower vase as it is only 13cms high! The diameter is 8cms. I know the German word for July is Juli.

I know the Spanish - American War was on at that time but my grandfather, born in Ireland, raised in South Africa, fought in both Boer Wars 1880 - 1881 and 1899 - 1902, did the Germans supply any side with arms or has this been brought out to South Africa from Europe later? He was in the South African Medical Corps and died at the Battle of Delville Wood in 1916. I would love to now know more about it and what the markings mean?

Thank you,

Toni.

[Torrey McLean]

Hello, Toni -

Your flower vase probably was a German 77x230 shell case for the 77mm field gun. As you suspect, it was shortened from an original length of 23cm. You already know what the important markings mean; the numbers "12" and "48" probably are an inspector's identification number and the identification number of the particular metal batch from which that specific group of shell casings was manufactured.

The small circle between the markings "JULI" and "1898" was the primer which, when struck, would detonate the explosive used to propel the shell. The 1898 date is very early for this type of shell case, and it would most likely have been used early in the war.

There was a German-made 75x129 shell case for the Austrian Geb. K-15 mountain gun that would be the correct length of your shell case, but I don't know if AWS made any or if Germany manufactured any as early as 1898. Without being able to examine your piece, I suspect that it more likely that it is a cut-down 77x230 case.

I do not have any suggestion as to how your piece made its way into your family.

I hope that this information is of some use. My knowledge is limited, so perhaps other members can be more helpful.

Regards, Torrey

[tonisb]

Hi Torrey,

Thanks for the info - do you know early in which war?

Regards,

Toni

[Torrey McLean]

Hello, Toni - I meant early in WWI, although it could have been reloaded and reused much later. I don't know a thing about artillery supplied to the Boers during the Boer War. Regards, Torrey

[CharlieBris]

The Boers probably didn't have any 7.7cm Krupp guns - the field guns they did have were 7.5cm Krupp guns without recoil absorption (M1892?).

There were also a number of similar French 7.5cm Cruesot guns.

There was a lot of German artillery captured at the start of WW1 when the German forces in the colony of South-West Africa were defeated.

Perhaps the cartridge case came from that source.

Regards,

Charlie

[tonisb]

Hi Charlie and Torrey,

Thanks guys. You get very technical and lose me on that side of things. I will certainly go and do some more in depth research and find out if my G. Grandfather was in South West Africa.

Thanks again,

Toni.