french 120mm

[joery]

hello,

i have here a french 120mm obus with 2 driving bands.
one band is milled off,does anyone know the right reason for this?
lenght off projectile is 467mm.
from base to band:15mm.
has anyone pictures of this grenade without the band is milled off?

grtz joery

 

[MINENAZ16]

Hello,

Your shell with a French fuze is very strange. I've never seen such a driving band on a French 120mm.
French 120mm Mle 1914 is fitted with only one small driving band (pic1). The length is 483mm without fuze.
I saw this kind of flat copper driving band on a Belgian 15cm (pic 2).

Regards

 

[joery]

hello,

yes,it is a rare piece.
i did see this piece only two times in all the time I collect.
i have been told a long time ago from a former deminer on retirement,that this customized navy would be.
i have also this one on your first picture.
the part of the topic is also 483mm,i changed the dimensions of another piece that I had measured

grtz joery

 

[MINENAZ16]

In France when it's a strange unknown shell we always say : "it's a Navy shell" (because Navy used to make a lot of strange rounds !)

 

[peteblight]

I've seen a couple of projectiles which have had the upper of 2 driving bands removed and the resulting gap filled with copper. Both examples were from research and development test ranges and were US manufactured projectiles. The reason this was done was to allow a Mk or modified Mk series gun projectile to be fired from a howitzer. The breach sizes are slightly different and by removing or trimming down the front driving band, the modified projectile can be fired from the lower pressure howitzer. I have a reference for this somewhere, but like anything, finding it is a different matter.

Cheers

Pete

 

[peteblight]

Reference for the above post - War Department Technical Manual, TM9-1904, Ammunition Inspection Guide 1944, page 493-495.

Cheers

Pete

 

[MINENAZ16]

Other interesting example :
I don't understand why but we always find French 95mm Mle15, fired, with only one band ribbed. Maybe the upper one is thinner.

 

[Alpini]

I've seen a couple of projectiles which have had the upper of 2 driving bands removed and the resulting gap filled with copper. Both examples were from research and development test ranges and were US manufactured projectiles.

same for german firing ranges, I have seen such shells very often.

In the case of this french shell the question is, if it originally had two driving bands of which one got turned down or if the shell had one (upper) driving band which got replaced with a lower driving band. According to the docuemnts these French 120 mm shells have 25 mm between base and driving band so it could well be the case that the upper driving band was replaced by a new lower driving band. But there's still the question why?

 

[joery]

once I saw the same french 120mm obus, but it was the lower band which was spun down.
if a see the owner of this one,i will ask if a may photograph him.
I just never saw one with two bands complete.

grtz joery