British army camp - Mine fuzes, 40mm Bofors and some rare cartridges!

Hi all

Had a great dig on Sunday with some group members. Site is a location we had dug last year, so we knew what to expect from the site. The army blew the crap out of all the ammunition stored at the location at the end of the war. They dug a big pit, piled stuff in it, then blew it up......once a day, every day, for two weeks!

Had some great finds from the dig, with some items being quite common for this site, (mine fuzes and 40mm bases), but others less so. In fact, I added some rather rare cartridges to my collection this weekend!

Video of the dig.......

British army camp - Mine fuzes, Shell cases and rare cartridges - YouTube

And now the pics.................

Everything before cleaning.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...1hfguj4u-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...xtwwx8oa-1.jpg

And now after cleaning......

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...j2vqp5ri-1.jpg

No 152 safety cap, No 17 transport caps, 2 inch mortar transport cap, plus one I can't track down. Most interesting in this picture is the PIAT fuze holder, which is of the smaller type I had not got an example of. I have now!

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...fcohxons-1.jpg

Nicely marked No 17 transport cap

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...0isqkeho-1.jpg

WD arrow and 1941 dated fork

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...91wuw0a3-1.jpg

Bottom sections from 40mm Bofors shells, all nicely marked and WW2 dated.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...rsxncwqh-1.jpg


No 3 fuzes for the British Mk V anti-tank mine.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ln7ywuno-1.jpg


Nicely marked and dated......

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ra17mnj9-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...vtzspigi-1.jpg


Bottom left the tip of a nose fuze, probably from a 40mm along with two wingnuts off 50cal ammo crates. 50cal bullet on right and then 50cal cartridges. But WAIT! The two far left are very slightly different to the rest....slightly narrower and the shoulder begins too low down for it to be a standard 50cal......


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...fts1zamq-1.jpg


They are only bloody 50cal VICKERS cartridges !!!! AWESOME!! Never found one before, not got one in the collection, now have 2*

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...juo8ewtq-1.jpg

Left to right......30cal die-cast drill round, made by Triang. 303 drill, (no percussion cap and no flash holes either). Next German 1940 dated 7.92mm and lastly American 30cal.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...mm0dyww7-1.jpg

Headstamp of German cartridge.....

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...l3mik21b-1.jpg

Head of 303 showing lack of percussion cap and flash holes.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...krsa6m1k-1.jpg

20mm Oerlikon cartridges.....or at least what's left of them.


https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...xlemsvk5-1.jpg

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...a0wfxx0h-1.jpg




It was a great day.......

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...09572338-1.jpg

Hope you like the finds



Steve T

That isn't a fork. That is a special tool issued to the crunchies that enable him to strip things that he's not meant to touch, let alone strip. It's also for shorting out the starter switch on Bedford and Land-Rover vehicles when the duty driver has left the keys in his billet. You can also use it for jemmying your way into things. In short, it was an early version of your Gerber or Leatherman multi tool. There were another couple of parts to the set. one was called a spoon that they used to eat with while the other was a most versatile screwdriver.