A few battlefield finds from Crete

[Jan]

Found in a beach on northern Crete. Just thought I´d share these. Can anyone tell me what the stuff is?
Th casings all have the same marking P379 S* 8 39.

Rgds Jan

[Jan]

Btw these were not found with a metal detector... They were hand digged by me as a 17 year old

Rgds Jan

[Jan]

I´m most curious as to the bullet casings !

Cheers Jan

[Steve T]

Jan

Well done for finding these without a detector !

You cartridge casings are all WW2 German 7.92mm casings.

The 'P' number is the manufacturer. In this case, P379 is Metallwarenfabrik Scharfenberg & Teubert GmBh, Breitungen-Werra, Thuringen

The S* means that it is a brass case

The 8 is the batch number, and the 39 is the year of manufacture....1939.

The two items top left look like they might be the remains of 20mm cartridges. Have they got any markings on the base ?

Also, the bottom left item looks like the internal column from an artillery shell. The primer sits in this column and when the blast cap is struck, the primer ignites and the 'fire' comes out of the holes to ignite the main charge inside the artillery shell.

Some very good finds and a real pleasure to help such a young collector ! Well done and keep up the good work !

Steve T

[Jan]

Thank you so much. Im sorry but the rust has hit the 20 mm shells very bad. The only chance is the shell which is 3rd from the left. Ill let it bath in oil for a while and see what appears under the sand (if it does). What rifles would the 7,92 match?

Kind regards Jan

P.s. The items were found on a stony beach some 10 kilometers west of Chania in 1979 so I was in fact 17 at the time I´ll see if I can find some pictures. I remember them being under one or two layers of pebbles on the upper beach

[Jan]

Oops...... one of the casings has a crown on it. The stamps read K then 3 then crown with a cross in top then an 8.

Cheers Jan

[panzerjaeger44]

jan the weapons that match a 7.92 mm german cartridge are the mauser k98 or g98 the fg42 the gew41 and gew43 and of course the mg34 and mg42 no doubt iv left a few out but its highy llikly to be from a k98 IMO

[Jan]

jan the weapons that match a 7.92 mm german cartridge are the mauser k98 or g98 the fg42 the gew41 and gew43 and of course the mg34 and mg42 no doubt iv left a few out but its highy llikly to be from a k98 IMO

Thanks, sort of an allround thing then.. were the casings always in brass?

Rgds Jan

[klokhoane]

Is that piece on the top half in the middle a piece of a (rifle) grenade??
It looks a bit like one...

cheers,

[Steve T]

Jan

No....by no means. As early as 1940 the Germans were running out of copper to make the brass casings. Many casings ended up being made of lacquered or plated steel. These, of course, rust and tend not to have survived this long !

Cheers

Steve T