World War II Artillery Shell

[IBLocal]

I was walking on the beach today in Imperial Beach, just south of San Diego, CA and found a used artillery shell with the markings: 40mm MK 8 1944 R LOT 914, buried in the sand. It seems the the MK 8 is the Mark 8, from what I have found on the internet, and I understand the 40mm part. Does the number 1944 refer to the date of maufacture? Also, the shell is bent in half, almost like a "stovepipe" in a handgun in a much smaller scale. Any ideas? Is this WWII vintage shell casing? And any idea how it got bent in half? It must have taken a huge amount of force.

[Steve T]

Hi IBlocal and welcome to the forum

If you can post a picture it would certainly help us.

The 40mm is obviously the calibre, the mk 8, obvious again. The 1944 is indeed the year of manufacture and the R is the manufacturers code. The LOT 914 is self explanatory as well.

A nice find.

It could have got bent in half in any number of ways from being hit by a plough, hit by a propellor, run over by a tractor, damaged when removed from the breach.......lots of ways. A picture may help us

Cheers

Steve T

[VAMPIRE V12]

Really how dose this happen i scour my local ww2 beach with the flak gun emplacements still visible and bunkers dotted about but all i find is a bloody cold lol why cant i find eneything like this??
LOL

Alex

[Steve T]

........with the flak gun emplacements still visible and bunkers dotted about ......

I would suggest this is exactly why ! If the site is so obvious it will have been detected over and over again by relic hunters. You need to find the places with no obvious remains......then your luck will change.

Trust me on this ! And watch out for my post over the next few days about my relic hunting over the weekend at 3 old gunnery ranges. Hopefully you will see what I mean

Steve T

[Walkwolf]

I would suggest this is exactly why ! If the site is so obvious it will have been detected over and over again by relic hunters. You need to find the places with no obvious remains......then your luck will change.

Trust me on this ! And watch out for my post over the next few days about my relic hunting over the weekend at 3 old gunnery ranges. Hopefully you will see what I mean

Steve T

I can't wait, Steve ! !




Regards, Steve.

[IBLocal]

Steve: thanks for the response to my finding a spent WWII 40mm artillery shell on the beach south of San Diego, CA USA. I appreciate your response. The deep and severe bend in the shell is odd to me - there are no scratches or other marks that would indicate a prop or some other machine bending it - and I doubt that even the strong power of the ocean could bend the brass in half. I have seen small shell casings bent in the breech of my own small arms (pistols) to a certain degree - but this shell is squeezed right in half, without any trace of scrapes or other marks. I suspect it must have gotten caught in the breech when it was being ejected after being fired and the crew threw it overboard. The pictures I found on the internet of the weapon in action seemed to show the sailors saving the shells ont he deck for reload, but I don't know.

I am also surprised (as another blogger mentioned having trouble finding shells on WWII beaches in England right in front of the gun enplacements) that I found it on a crowded, popular beach (Imperial Beach). But it is just due south of the huge San Diego, CA naval base. So I suspect it must have been a shell fired in practice by the U.S. Navy during WW II and lay at the ocean floor until the other week. We previously had some stormy weather, so something must have churned it up. I'll try to post a pic.

Thanks lads.

[Steve T]

The way you describe it it certainly sounds like it got jammed in the breach.

Stormy weather is great for churning up long buried relics. I'd recommend to all to go metal detecting on a beach after a bad storm....the stuff you find is amazing.

Cheers

Steve T

[bikerboyzx6r]

Stormy weather is great for churning up long buried relics. I'd recommend to all to go metal detecting on a beach after a bad storm....the stuff you find is amazing.

Very true! I have never wanted it to be bad weather as much as I do now after reading your post Steve