Hurtgen Forest Finds

[bikerboyzx6r]

I found these items a while back and need help with the round rusty item. It is approx 125mm (4") wide & 25mm (1") thick with a 10mm hole in the middle... Any ideas?
Cheers
Dan

[Bart]

It is the bottom of an artillery shell.

[bikerboyzx6r]

It is the bottom of an artillery shell.

Its what I thought but why has it got a perfect hole through the middle & made in 2 pieces?
Cheers
Dan

[Steve T]

Dan

I have the bottom half of a 75mm AP shell recovered from a gunnery range. That too has a hole in the base, bang in the middle. Bart may well be right, although, at 4 inches in diameter, that's one heck of an artillery piece ! It may well just be a piece of relatively modern junk unfortunately.

The piece top right looks to me like part of a hasp off an ammo crate. I have found very similar pieces behind old ammo dumps on WW2 airbases.

Hope this helps

Steve T

[Bart]

Its what I thought but why has it got a perfect hole through the middle & made in 2 pieces?
Cheers
Dan

A lot of shells have this hole, for example a lot of AT guns have a tracer unit in such a hole. I however doubt that this was a AT shell for it's size. Some artillery pieces had a spare detonator in the back. Seeing that it is pretty dishaped I can only say that this must have been very near to some sort of explosion since it is 25mm thick steel. I don't know why they made it a two piece part but I found lots of these and a lot of them (especially the german ones) have this. Maybe for better sealment? I don't know.

@Steve T: It would have been heavy artillery indeed but do not underestimate the use of heavy artillery especially not in the Hürtgen Forest.

[bikerboyzx6r]

Indeed Bart, these base's were everywher we digged in the forest but at 2kg each, I could only get one back with me

The catch Steve, was attached to a longer piece of metal sticking out of the ground at the side on a Pill box... The big piece was too big to pull out so I assumed it was part of the Pillbox? Vent hatch catch or Door catch?

[Steve T]

Oh right......in which case yes. Probably a steel door or shutter 'stay' to keep the thing open.



Bart - Indeed, the Hurtgen was one of those battles where everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink was filled with explosive and chucked about. 4 or 5 inch artillery pieces must have packed one hell of a wallop, let alone the big German mortars and railway guns !

Steve T

[bikerboyzx6r]

Just measured it properly.... its 124mm wide (5") & 25mm Thick (1") a might shell that would have been!