British Ordnance Collectors Network
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
The Bombatorium
- Thread starter US-Subs
- Start date
Thanks Bob, it should be stamped, shouldn't it?
I'm still looking for a tech reference on these Hungarian 20mm APHE. Can anyone help? I managed to dig up a picture from my archives of several 20mms being X-rayed, which includes the Hungarian, but that does not give me the data I need. A tech ref would be of great help - anyone?
Thanks Eric, that helps a lot. My Hungarian is a bit weak, I am guessing that Robbano' anyag is the explosive charge, and the HE content is 1.4 grams? Do you have a cover shot of the source document?
Thanks anyway, that is much more information than I had previously.
Some time back I provided some advice to a small manufacturing company in our State, as a thanks they offered to assist in the fabrication of a new bomb rack, to help reduce the footprint of my LDGP group. As with many areas in this thread the pictures do not do it justice. The piece is massive, 100 inches tall (2.5m) made of aluminum and weighing in at nearly 400lbs. The only bomb not at full weight is the MK83, the others are all concrete filled. The biggest challenge was the MK81, getting it up over the 100-inch lip was challenging. This will take door #1 out of commission for a while, but we still have one left.
A good weekend, got a couple of new pieces. I haven't had a chance to do any research on the bomb yet, it is shown in front of my 2000lb MK 84. Japanese Navy, something around or slightly over 500lb, rocket boosted. Behind it is a 200lb steel plate, not sure if it was a witness plate or cut our from a target. No history, no idea what made the impacts or holes, but it is cool. Hope to have time over the holiday weekend to take some measurements etc.
It's been a difficult holiday season, especially for many working for the Federal Government here in the US. Nevertheless, I've managed to make a couple of quick bullet trips, and found some very interesting pieces, although at a cost. The first trip was down to Rock Island, on the Illinois/Iowa border, where I picked up 4 heavy projectiles. I got a 6-inch (ish) round, yet to be identified, a 9.2-inch - not sure if it is US or UK yet, a short 6-inch AP missing the rotating band and windshield, and an early 8-inch HE. Stamping on the underside of the rotating band of the 8-inch is "SRT Co Pat 1871".
This trip was followed by a more difficult one the weekend after Xmas, to Missouri. A small museum there had their storage area sold out from under them, and was looking for a home for some of their spare items. Heavy in Navy pieces, I ended up with several each Navy 8-inch, 6-inch 5 inch and 3-inch, a 75mm RR, UK 105mm, some drill stuff, a large number of cutaway Navy VT fuzes and base fuzes, a couple of dummy 16-inch powder charges (100lbs each) a group of nice cases and a bunch of miscellaneous items.
On the dark side, as a government employee my holiday leave was cancelled and I was required to work through and including Christmas and New Years. This put everything in a time crunch and we had to make a quick 2-day run, a little over 500 miles each way. Driving around the Great Lakes in Michigan is always difficult in the winter, and we paid the price. While crossing a .5 mile ice covered bridge the trailer decided that it wanted to lead for a while, and would not take no for an answer. Could have been worse, no one was hurt and it was early with no traffic, but the truck will never be the same again (or driven). Fortunately the bullets were well secured in the trailer and nothing moved or was lost. The dummy 16-inch propellant bags in the truck were not as well secured, and crushed a number of items during the 3 impacts as they bounced around in the back.
Nothing that cannot be replaced and with luck (and maybe someday a paycheck) we will be back on the road soon.
This trip was followed by a more difficult one the weekend after Xmas, to Missouri. A small museum there had their storage area sold out from under them, and was looking for a home for some of their spare items. Heavy in Navy pieces, I ended up with several each Navy 8-inch, 6-inch 5 inch and 3-inch, a 75mm RR, UK 105mm, some drill stuff, a large number of cutaway Navy VT fuzes and base fuzes, a couple of dummy 16-inch powder charges (100lbs each) a group of nice cases and a bunch of miscellaneous items.
On the dark side, as a government employee my holiday leave was cancelled and I was required to work through and including Christmas and New Years. This put everything in a time crunch and we had to make a quick 2-day run, a little over 500 miles each way. Driving around the Great Lakes in Michigan is always difficult in the winter, and we paid the price. While crossing a .5 mile ice covered bridge the trailer decided that it wanted to lead for a while, and would not take no for an answer. Could have been worse, no one was hurt and it was early with no traffic, but the truck will never be the same again (or driven). Fortunately the bullets were well secured in the trailer and nothing moved or was lost. The dummy 16-inch propellant bags in the truck were not as well secured, and crushed a number of items during the 3 impacts as they bounced around in the back.
Nothing that cannot be replaced and with luck (and maybe someday a paycheck) we will be back on the road soon.
I may never know the designations of all of the fuzes, the Navy was never as strict as the Army on marking, plus many of them seem to have been cut-away over the area of markings, and of those that are marked, many appear to have been experimental. All need a good cleaning an some oil, when I get everything else taken care of that will go on the to-do list and markings will be logged when they are photographed and entered into the database.
The collection database has been suffering the last couple of years, just one of the problems with a 1-man show. That was one of my plans for the holidays, updating and inventorying, making sure things are all entered and correct. With the loss of vacation time I still have weekends, but it must take its turn with all other life functions. I've started with small stuff, and I've been switching back and forth between 40mm cartridges and grenades, getting close to done on those two areas. No time for in-depth IDs at the moment, first thing is to get it logged in, then I can add data as time comes available or information pops up. I've picked up several hundred new pieces in the last couple years, so its lots of photos and computer time.
In regard to the truck, thanks to all, but in the end, it was a truck. That was my seventh interstate trip of the year, and things could have been much worse, right up to the point of five 8-inch projectiles bouncing down the interstate highway. Not concerned about bad press, but the thought of someone driving into one of those in the dark would not be pretty. Thankfully we had taken a load of lumber, power saws, screw drills etc., with us and had done extensive blocking and bracing. We did learn some valuable lessons however, and will take them into account as we move forward.
The collection database has been suffering the last couple of years, just one of the problems with a 1-man show. That was one of my plans for the holidays, updating and inventorying, making sure things are all entered and correct. With the loss of vacation time I still have weekends, but it must take its turn with all other life functions. I've started with small stuff, and I've been switching back and forth between 40mm cartridges and grenades, getting close to done on those two areas. No time for in-depth IDs at the moment, first thing is to get it logged in, then I can add data as time comes available or information pops up. I've picked up several hundred new pieces in the last couple years, so its lots of photos and computer time.
In regard to the truck, thanks to all, but in the end, it was a truck. That was my seventh interstate trip of the year, and things could have been much worse, right up to the point of five 8-inch projectiles bouncing down the interstate highway. Not concerned about bad press, but the thought of someone driving into one of those in the dark would not be pretty. Thankfully we had taken a load of lumber, power saws, screw drills etc., with us and had done extensive blocking and bracing. We did learn some valuable lessons however, and will take them into account as we move forward.
Couple of new items. I'm looking for an ID on this projectile, I'm busy with the grenades and don't have the day or two it would take me to hunt, I'm hoping somebody knows it off the top of their head. Diameter is 150.4mm, length is 530mm, rotating band is 50 from the base of the projectile. In addition I've snapped a couple pictures of a bomb fuze I just got in, a MK XIV, an unusual fuze to find, but the kicker on this one is the metal tag, which is in Spanish. Not sure if that would be for Mexico or somewhere further east/south, hard to tell with a fuze of that age and limited use.
