The British 18 Pounder Field Gun

[johnreed]

The Funeral Gun at the Firepower Museum was used in King George VI Funeral.

John

[navyman]

Here is a photo of my complete 18pdr complete HE round (its empty of course)

John

John,

This fuse is part of my collection. The fuse itself was given to me years ago and is complete with all it's inert internal parts. It was being used as a paperweight. The base ring which would have connected it to the projectile, and the safety cover came from a different but similar shell found, among many more, by a diver in the English Channel. The cordite propellant was in the form of straws and was still active as he demonstrated by igniting a handfull in a bucket ! The shell itself had corroded away leaving only amalgamated shrapnel balls. I declined the offer of the case as I wasn't prepared to risk the unfired primer although I doubt very much whether this would still have been operational. The safety cover has been crushed somewhat, I imagine by sea water pressure as the ship sank. The tear off soldered ring has been lost over the course of time.

I would like to find out if this fuse is from an 18 Lbdr shell, any help much appreciated ?

Guy.

[nigelfe]

John,

This fuse is part of my collection. The fuse itself was given to me years ago and is complete with all it's inert internal parts. It was being used as a paperweight. The base ring which would have connected it to the projectile, and the safety cover came from a different but similar shell found, among many more, by a diver in the English Channel. The cordite propellant was in the form of straws and was still active as he demonstrated by igniting a handfull in a bucket ! The shell itself had corroded away leaving only amalgamated shrapnel balls. I declined the offer of the case as I wasn't prepared to risk the unfired primer although I doubt very much whether this would still have been operational. The safety cover has been crushed somewhat, I imagine by sea water pressure as the ship sank. The tear off soldered ring has been lost over the course of time.

I would like to find out if this fuse is from an 18 Lbdr shell, any help much appreciated ?

Guy.

The whole idea of fuzes is that they were not calibre specific. Broadly a particular type of fuze could be used in the appropriate type of shell of any calibre. Matters were a bit simpler with the older generation of fuzes that were still in service in 1914 with the older generation of guns and howitzers. In the case of time fuzes, new models were introduced during the war that were longer burning for long range guns and this may narrow the field a bit. However, the No 80 T&P fuze, used by 18-pr was also used by 13-pr, 4.5-in How and probably others.

[JonM]

Folks, 

Maybe of interest, please see attached photos of two WW1 engineers 18 pounder shell gauges. These would have come from the Vickers munitions facility in Barrow-in-Furness where my Grandmother had worked during WW1. I don't understand all the markings on them so if anyone can shed some light that would be very welcome. 

Best wishes

Jon

 

[14276265]

They are gauges for verifying the diameter of shell being turned from forged or bar steel. There would be two gauges for each measurement - H (high) and L (low), and the shell body would have to slide between the feet of the H, and not slide between the feet of the L, to pass the conformance test. The "Rough Turn" L and H gauges for the HE shell would be applied after the initial turning operation to the raw forging or bar. When passed the work piece would be sent to another machine and operator to be ultimately finished on a facing lathe, when the "Finish Turn" L and H gauges would finally be used. (There were numerous separate machining operations to produce a shell.)

You have the Rough Turn L gauge for an 18-pr MkIII High Explosive (Land Service) shell, distance between the feet of 3.33"; and a Finish Turn L gauge for 18-pr Shrapnel shell, distance between feet of 3.295". Note the higher precision for the finish turning. 382S should be the Ministry reference number for the type of of gauge and 518 the individual serial number of the gauge.

 

 

265

[JonM]

Many thanks for this. 

Regards

Jon