Pre D Day battleground Training Area.

[Whitehunter]

Starting to get a nice collection of Mortar fins. Keep up the good work!

[dangermouse]

"It was made by ICI!"

So far every mortar launcher cartridge I have got the markings off have all been ICI.

DM

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Steve, You're right mate it is from a Bazooka, I've given it a quick clean the fins are made of steel, bent, corroded and much shorter than they would have been. It still has a nice propellant nozzle in the base and I was able to poke an old coat hanger up inside to check it's empty of propellant. But for me the best bit is, it still has two minute wires passing through the jet nozzle into propellant tank, these must have been for the ignition circuit.
Im surprised how heavy and robust it is, certainly must have needed a powerful thrust to push it through the air. Incidently I have another bazooka fin I found years ago in the Ardennes but that one is much lighter its made of alloy.

Thanks WH, Yes I am getting a few but surprisingly no 2 inch fins from this site yet, what I'd love to find is the spot where the mortars were fired from to hit the area Ive been searching. I have an idea of a possibilty to check in the hope of finding a few 3 inch nose caps etc.

DM, 'ICI' certainly produced plenty during WW2, I always thought they were a post war company but obviously not. I always find it amazing how companies that didn't produce Military supplies pre war changed there manufacturing production some radically during the War. Furniture makers making Mosquito's perhaps doesn't seem so different as both required great carpentry skills although aero tolerances were higher. But recently I was talking to an old Guy who worked for a company that made bank note paper, but during the war manufactured hand grenades? A radical change of production if ever there was one.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[dangermouse]

ha ha ha... that's brilliant a company that made bank note paper, but during the war manufactured hand grenades?

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Have now cleaned and photographed the interesting bits from my last visit to the site.

Another 3 inch Mortar tail.



The base showing the ICI marking.



The crushed and empty body of a 2 inch red (notice remains of red band) smoke emitting mortar with the tail stub less its fins.





A US M43 A1 81mm Mortar tail in exploded relic form.



Now onto the Bazooka round



This is an M7 A1 practice round, The rod at the front screwed into the fuze thread and acted as a counter balance weight to give the same mass and centre of balance to the round as a live one.



This is what the round would have looked like.



A couple of close ups showing where the counter balance rod screws in and what remains of the tail section.



The same views on a good example.



A close up of the tail showing the propellant jet nozzle and amazingly the remains of the ignition/triggering wires.



and finally the aluminium fin of another US M56 81mm Mortar round. I cleaned this one carefully to retain as much of the original green paint as possible.



The base is nicely marked M34 for the propellant type and dated 1944



Thank you for looking.

LUCKYSTRIKE

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

I've recently found a couple more of the Flare Trip Wire heads and their stakes (although not found together) but I thought it would be an interesting reference to show the two so you can see the differences.

I'm a great lover of the in the ground pictures so here's another 3 inch mortar fin yet to be cleaned.



First up for the comparisons are the two types of stake.



and then the flare heads.



Here are pictures of the Mark 1 dated 1943.







and here are pictures of the Mark 2/1 dated 1955, you'll notice it's a good size bigger than the Mk 1.







and finally here they are together.



LUCKYSTRIKE

[381st digger]

Great stuff Lucky keep up the good work. The bazooka round is really smart.

Andy

[Whitehunter]

good work LS, Love the inground shots, Keep up the good work!

I also like the demonstration of the trip wires. They look great. Are the made from Bakelite?


John

[davejb]

When you set one off by walking through the line ,it scares the holy S**T out of you and lights up the whole area and your like a rabbit caught in the headlights, and if you look at it the night vision is completely buggered

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Thanks Andy, Yes John the Mk1 is definately bakelite but the other one I'm not so sure about. It feels slightly rough textured like the feel of bakelite but is black?. But if its not then it's some form of early and because its quite thick heavy plastic.
Dave thanks for your recollections, the MK2 is quite a size and would have held plenty of the illuminating (perhaps phosphorous) material which I'm sure would be blinding bright on a dark night. Out of interest did they just illuminate when triggered or did they also make a noise like a bang to alert all around?
Cheers
LS