Canadian 105mm Arty shell markings

[Mike Cecil]

Thanks Terry - all good info to know.

I can add (or muddy the waters?) to the markings info with the comment that, sometime after the diagram in Rob's post, both the USA and Australia (so I think it must be a NATO standard?) included a broad yellow band around the projectile, just below the shoulder. My US diagram is dated in the 1990s, and the images I have of Australian manufactured 105mm How HE ammunition show they were manufactured in the early 1990s. I took the images on the gunline during a live shoot in 2008. The howitzers were L118 Hamel.

I also looked at some period images on the AWM website, and this one:
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C318682

taken in August 1969 shows an M1 projectile with a light coloured band about to be loaded into an M2A2.


And this one, but date of manufacture unknown: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1142179

But this one in 1967 does not: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C314824


I should also add that all 105 H ammunition fired by Australian gunners in South Vietnam was US supplied, not Australian.


Maybe it will depend on what time period is being represented?

Mike

[Mike Cecil]

Dennis, interesting image, thank you for posting: the projectiles seem to have a 1978 manufacture/filling date, which brings my previous comments about the yellow band into question in so far as Canadian production is concerned.

Mike

[rob love]

According to my chart above, the yellow band would denote a smoke round. If you really want confirmation, I can ask an artillery guy over at the main museum.
My chart is from the 1963 manual so may be dated. I can check the library here and see if we have something newer.

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Rob,

Would be very interested to know if the yellow band was ever introduced for Canadian production 105-mm How HE rounds.

The visual difference between the 105-mm How HE and SMK rounds was always the overall colour: drab olive for the HE, a duck egg blue-grey colour for SMK. The listed width of the yellow band in the 1994 US manual, when used on both rounds, was different, too: 1 inch for HE, 1/2 inch for SMK. SMK rounds seem to have morphed to a brown coloured band, as per the 1993-filled rounds pictured below, which I think are of US manufacture. The HC indicates the smoke compound, the BE is Base Ejection. WP SMK (white phospherous, point-detonating round, not BE) seem to have the yellow band, as per the AWM image in post #9. The M1 rounds were 2006-manufacture by Aust Defence Industries (ADI). The small squares around the neck of both projectiles are supposed to be 1/2 inch x 1/2 inch. I've also got some earlier images of SMK rounds showing the stencilling in red, so there were obviously changes over time, or inconsistencies with the 'rules'.

The images below were taken in 2009.

Mike

[rob love]

I asked a more senior artilleryman, and he does not recall ever having seen the yellow band on HE rounds. As to the WP smoke, he told me Canada quit using them...not clear if it was environmentally unfriendly or considered chemical warfare which we have backed out of along with landmines.



I tried to find some more modern manuals, but their ammunition sections did not have as much information as the old manual had.

[Mike Cecil]

Thanks Rob.


Mike