Please Help! Need to know more about my new artillery shell

[gringo016]

The attached pictures are of the shell itself. (sorry about the first picture)
I have recently bought an artillery shell at an auction and all I know about it really is that I really wanted it. I have spent a few hours on the internet trying to do research to determine the time period it might have been from and how it was used. These are the following things that I might be right/wrong on about this shell.
-It is semi fixed Ammunition
-It has a MK25 Mechanical Time Fuze
-I believe its a shrapnel shell but not sure, and possibly British made.

The lettering on the shell itself reads:
YCC -1-3 69 105MM M A 4 E 1

And the fuze reads:
FUZE, MT M565

Thats all that I have gathered by myself and Im hoping that you could shed a little more light on it and if not where I could find out more.

P.S.
I am also looking into possibly restoring this piece of history and was wondering if you had any tips and tricks on how to go about doing that.

Thank You

 

[weberoed]

OK you have a semie fixed (means you can change the powder load in the cartridge case as needed) 105mm M-84 ejection projectile, smoke cannisters were exjected form its rear. The fuze is a M565 Mechanical time. The projectile was laoded by Chamberlain Mfg Corp, they would be a contractor who operated the Army plant it was loaded at, since it is a smoke projectile maybe Louisiana AAP, Milan AAP or Iowa APP (those plants are just a thought and maybe wrong)

 

[HAZORD]

Nice round! You might want to remove some of the green oxidation/corrosion around the base of your case when you have time. There will be additonal information stamped into the head of the cartridge case. The YCC on the projectile is the identification code for Chamberlain, as weberoed said. Chamberlain is the company that manufactured the steel body of the shell. It was made in 1969, the height of the Vietnam war and the same year we landed on the Moon. It was fired by a 105mm Howitzer.

As far as restoring it, you should be able to remove the projectile from the case. If it is stuck, get a piece of wood like a short piece of 2 X 4, and strike it against the rim of the case, to knock the case back and away from the projo body. Once they are apart, you can work on the projo to clean it up and remove the fuze. The fuze should unscrew from the nose of the projectile. It is a standard right-hand thread. If it won't unscrew, stand the projo on its nose, and shoot some penetrating oil down into the nose of the projo and let it sit for some time for the oil to soak around the fuze through the threads. After the oil has soaked, try to unscrew the fuze. If it is still stuck, get a soft hammer like a leather one or rubber, and go aroung the fuze, tapping on the area of the fuze where it meets the body, to jarr the fuze loose.

The inside of the projectile body will most likely be rusty. You can clean that out if you want.

You can repaint and reletter the projectile if you want. In the attached photo, your projo should look like the one on the right. The data sheets for the round are attached for reference.

 

[weberoed]

Chamberlian was also the contractor operator for a number of AAPs, I know for fact they had Iowa, Kansas and Milan AAPs, as I have site plans and SOPs with their head stamp etc. They were repalced by mason Hangar near the end of VN. If I recall they still run a couple big metal operations. I use not to track who made or loaded what until I had to defend a couple IDs. Need to complete the list but it is so damn long right now and gets mixed up with sub contractor after subcontractor.

 

[weberoed]

Misspoke sorry. got Chamberlain confused with another operator. Chamberlian did how ever LAP the m42 grenades etc at the Mississippi AAP. But I relooked at a couple SOPs from Kansas AAP and Chamberlains name was all over the them - little confused now. The stamped in part of the projo is the date the projo was made, not filled that info would have been stenciled on the body. Ah old age hitting me again

 

[HAZORD]

When I worked at Norris, Chamberlain was our main competitor for making projectile bodies. We were making the M483 ICM projos, and Chamberlain was also making them at the same time. We even had a Production Manager that quit Norris to go work for Chamberlain, most likely taking a lot of our process secrets with him. Then when he was fired from Chamberlain, he returned and wanted his old job back. Needless to say he wasn't rehired.