wrightdw Posted 19 December , 2023 Share Posted 19 December , 2023 Any information would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Posted 19 December , 2023 Share Posted 19 December , 2023 (edited) It's a British 18-pdr Mk IV produced from around 1919. By this time, the carriage design had been completly changed to a box trail (from a pole trail) and to mount the gun above the hydro-pneumatic recoil system rather than hung below it as in the original marks of gun. This carriage went on to form the basis of the so-called 18/25-pdrs (Mk I 25-pdr) that were used at the time of Dunkirk. Edited 19 December , 2023 by Spaceman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrightdw Posted 19 December , 2023 Author Share Posted 19 December , 2023 Thanks Spaceman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chasemuseum Posted 19 December , 2023 Share Posted 19 December , 2023 Photo of the Mk IV from the 1921 handbook. Also I have been told but not personally verified that the first Mk IV were produced in 1918 and that there was a trials deployment of a battery on the Western Front just before the end of the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrightdw Posted 20 December , 2023 Author Share Posted 20 December , 2023 Thanks Chasemuseum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peregrinvs Posted 20 December , 2023 Share Posted 20 December , 2023 On 19/12/2023 at 06:21, Spaceman said: It's a British 18-pdr Mk IV produced from around 1919. By this time, the carriage design had been completly changed to a box trail (from a pole trail) and to mount the gun above the hydro-pneumatic recoil system rather than hung below it as in the original marks of gun. This carriage went on to form the basis of the so-called 18/25-pdrs (Mk I 25-pdr) that were used at the time of Dunkirk. I find the MkIV 18PR / MkI 25PR quite interesting as I have a 1938 dated 25PR case that I assume was fired by a MkI 25PR gun. (The very earliest cases were marked 3.45” rather than 25PR) What seem to be really rare are interwar dated 18PR cases - presumably they had a vast supply of reloadable WWI manufactured cases available to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrightdw Posted 20 December , 2023 Author Share Posted 20 December , 2023 That is interesting peregrin. For interest here is a live 18 pdr shell (S for Shrapnel?) fired on the battlefield in North Russia in 1918 or 1919 and recovered 100 years later. S Mk I 18 PDR PHOENIX B BS 1918 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peregrinvs Posted 20 December , 2023 Share Posted 20 December , 2023 Interesting example. To me that looks like SMK = Smoke. BS = Billet Steel (made of) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Posted 20 December , 2023 Share Posted 20 December , 2023 4 hours ago, peregrinvs said: I find the MkIV 18PR / MkI 25PR quite interesting as I have a 1938 dated 25PR case that I assume was fired by a MkI 25PR gun. (The very earliest cases were marked 3.45” rather than 25PR) What seem to be really rare are interwar dated 18PR cases - presumably they had a vast supply of reloadable WWI manufactured cases available to use. As I understand it, the 25-pdr Mk I fired fixed rounds like the previous 18-pdr and it wasn't until the 25-pdr Mk II that it's howitzer capability forced the use of separately loaded ammunition to allow the charge to be varied. However, I'm not sure you would be able to tell from this shell case whether it was loaded with the shell attached? In terms of inter-war 18-pdr cases, it's probably a case (no pun intended) that spent shell cases only become available to the public from those picked up on battlefields as in WW1 and WW2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peregrinvs Posted 20 December , 2023 Share Posted 20 December , 2023 I was under the impression that all 25PR ammunition was separate loading and the MkII gun didn’t start entering service until early 1940. Yes you’re probably right about the source of souvenired cases. That probably explains why interwar dated British cartridge cases are generally scarce (in my experience). They would have stayed in the system and been recycled. At the other end of the time scale, I have a fired but un-rusted 1906 dated 18PR MkI shrapnel shell with matching 1906 dated No.80 fuze. I think the most simple explanation for their survival is that some Edwardian person picked them up off a British range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrightdw Posted 3 January Author Share Posted 3 January (edited) Can anyone confirm these are 18 Pdr. shells? What type of fuze is the second one? BTW, it's not me in the photo! Edited 3 January by wrightdw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
14276265 Posted 3 January Share Posted 3 January (edited) They are all French 75mm. The five cartridges in the top image are Shrapnel; the projectile in the lower image is HE, fitted with a Model 1916 Lefevre elongated instantaneous percussion fuze - ("fusée Instantanée Allongée Mle 16 Lefevre"). 265 Edited 3 January by 14276265 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peregrinvs Posted 3 January Share Posted 3 January I was about to write the same, but 14276265 beat me to it. They are both types of round fired by the French Model 1897 75mm field gun. (More or less the French equivalent of the British 18 Pounder) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_de_75_modèle_1897 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrightdw Posted 3 January Author Share Posted 3 January Thanks for the confirmations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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