German Flak Shrapnel? But how?

**Vegard T** · 01-01-2012, 02:13 AM

I found this big heavy chunk of metal at the exact place where a FW-190 A-3 crashed, and I keep asking myself, what on earth is this thing? It seems to heavy to be a part of the aircraft itself, and I have been told it is shrapnel, but I find that sort of odd. The plane did take a lot of ground fire, but could a big piece like this really get stuck in the plane, survive the crash landing(The plane was 100% destroyed) and stay in the plane all that time?

What is your theory? This is driving me nuts!

I'll post dimensions tomorrow, but it is about 8mm thick and heavy.

**Thanatos** · 01-01-2012, 04:35 AM

Gday mate,
The FW-190a3 was also used as a fighter bomber,may be it was on a strike mission and you have a piece of it's payload(Bomb casing fragment) that got lodged in the aircraft when crashed.
Just a thought.
Have a good one.

**Wagriff** · 01-01-2012, 05:23 AM

It could well be nearly anything-it has a definite shape to it with several "shoulders", so it obviously was more than a piece of anonymous shrapnel from flak. A flak shell head would not have much "shape" to it, of course. Dave could be totally right on, or it could simply be a piece of the planes mechanics -maybe even a piece of the motor's engine block itself. At any rate, it's an interesting relic from a WWII famous aircraft. Very cool thing! William

**Martin Bull** · 01-01-2012, 03:23 PM

This is guesswork, but this could possibly be a fragment of undercarriage strut. The thickness sounds about right.....

**corblimy** · 01-01-2012, 05:21 PM

Also consider if the area had seen fighting, bombing or artillery fire before the FW crashed, and that piece has no connection with the aircraft at all.

**Vegard T** · 01-01-2012, 05:58 PM

I think I can wipe out a couple of theories right here.

The plane was shot down 1 February 1943 on the West coast of Norway. It did not have anything to bomb, so why would it have a bomb? It crashed on an island where there has never been any fighting and if it did have a bomb, there would have been a bigger bang and bigger damage, wouldn't there?