ID requested: 3 Japanese items (fuzes/gaines)
Hi,
I'm currently working on acquiring a large volume of Japanese items that were salvaged from sunken supply vessels in the early 1980s. The items consist of a mish-mash of IJA and IJN casings and fuzes; some of which (i.e. several of the IJN ones) were used for the defence of the ships themselves, and others seemingly on their way back to Japan for re-usage of the brass (stuff like spent casings and parts thereof).
In amongst the lot, there are also several fuzes, gaines and primers. Three of these items have raised questions with me as to what they are precisely, and I cannot ID them using OpNav 1667 or other documentation (or I have repeatedly overlooked them).
I'm hoping someone can ID them.
If you take a look at the overview picture, you'll see all three of them, next to one another, along with more common items (such as the Type 89 Powder-Time fuzes) that serve well for size comparison.
In this shot, the items at hand are represented with the numbers 8, 13 and 14. The other two pictures show close-ups of these items.
Down below I've written some assumptions, and I hope someone can ID them....:
Nr. 8 appears to be some form of time fuze, or just very maybe the scale is a depth setting for depth charges, but.... as it is Osaka marked, that makes this a piece of IJA ammo, and not IJN as one would expect from depth charge related items. In light of the very strict separation between IJA and IJN ammo (with very few exceptions) this does not seem to be very likely, but then, it's not impossible either....
Theoretically, the scale could be a time or depth scale. Do note that the scale starts at '5', there's of course no way that one would actually have a depth charge explode at such a shallow depth, so really in all likelihood this appears to be a time scale. The upper end of the scale ends at 200; which would be quite a long time of flight (especially from low velocity howitzer or mortar rounds); the timed scale could of course still be proper for a depth charge fuze, if these used a scale in seconds, rather than in meters/feet depth!
The markings are highly interesting; they read 'kyu ryu' (= 'Mortar Howitzer'), just like on the notorious Type 88 instantaneous fuzes, but this time written the other way around!
A further detail of interest is the setting slot; it looks like it was heavily used. Maybe it was used by an instructor to demonstrate how they were set???
It's a pretty tall item, and all of the above led me to initially suspect it to be a fuze for the 320mm spigot mortar, but, the drawings of that in OpNav 1667 show something else...
This appears to be a very nice and rare item; or at least, the full ID is beyond me.
Nr. 13 has all the looks of being a gaine or booster (well), or maybe an auxiliary fuze. Size-wise it looks a bit like the gaine/booster of the 81mm mortar rounds, but that one has a different shape.
Nr. 14 is even stranger, could this perhaps be a part of a bomb or a gaine???
In light of the suspicion that these items were retrieved from a vessel that was bringing back brass items to Japan, it is of course also possible that nr. 14 is not even ammo related, but perhaps a part of a machine (an aircraft, possibly?)....
Does anyone have an id(ea)?
Cheers,
Olafo
Hi,
I'm currently working on acquiring a large volume of Japanese items that were salvaged from sunken supply vessels in the early 1980s. The items consist of a mish-mash of IJA and IJN casings and fuzes; some of which (i.e. several of the IJN ones) were used for the defence of the ships themselves, and others seemingly on their way back to Japan for re-usage of the brass (stuff like spent casings and parts thereof).
In amongst the lot, there are also several fuzes, gaines and primers. Three of these items have raised questions with me as to what they are precisely, and I cannot ID them using OpNav 1667 or other documentation (or I have repeatedly overlooked them).
I'm hoping someone can ID them.
If you take a look at the overview picture, you'll see all three of them, next to one another, along with more common items (such as the Type 89 Powder-Time fuzes) that serve well for size comparison.
In this shot, the items at hand are represented with the numbers 8, 13 and 14. The other two pictures show close-ups of these items.
Down below I've written some assumptions, and I hope someone can ID them....:
Nr. 8 appears to be some form of time fuze, or just very maybe the scale is a depth setting for depth charges, but.... as it is Osaka marked, that makes this a piece of IJA ammo, and not IJN as one would expect from depth charge related items. In light of the very strict separation between IJA and IJN ammo (with very few exceptions) this does not seem to be very likely, but then, it's not impossible either....
Theoretically, the scale could be a time or depth scale. Do note that the scale starts at '5', there's of course no way that one would actually have a depth charge explode at such a shallow depth, so really in all likelihood this appears to be a time scale. The upper end of the scale ends at 200; which would be quite a long time of flight (especially from low velocity howitzer or mortar rounds); the timed scale could of course still be proper for a depth charge fuze, if these used a scale in seconds, rather than in meters/feet depth!
The markings are highly interesting; they read 'kyu ryu' (= 'Mortar Howitzer'), just like on the notorious Type 88 instantaneous fuzes, but this time written the other way around!
A further detail of interest is the setting slot; it looks like it was heavily used. Maybe it was used by an instructor to demonstrate how they were set???
It's a pretty tall item, and all of the above led me to initially suspect it to be a fuze for the 320mm spigot mortar, but, the drawings of that in OpNav 1667 show something else...
This appears to be a very nice and rare item; or at least, the full ID is beyond me.
Nr. 13 has all the looks of being a gaine or booster (well), or maybe an auxiliary fuze. Size-wise it looks a bit like the gaine/booster of the 81mm mortar rounds, but that one has a different shape.
Nr. 14 is even stranger, could this perhaps be a part of a bomb or a gaine???
In light of the suspicion that these items were retrieved from a vessel that was bringing back brass items to Japan, it is of course also possible that nr. 14 is not even ammo related, but perhaps a part of a machine (an aircraft, possibly?)....
Does anyone have an id(ea)?
Cheers,
Olafo
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