75mm Artillery

[J.P. Brescacin]

Gentlemen (no offense Karmen),

I'm looking for info on where in Canada 75mm artillery shells would have been manufactured. I have some that are clearly stamped CL/C therefore produced here in Windsor (?) but I don't think we produced the complete round here, so where did they go from here? I would like to display these in an appropriate crate but what would that be...wood...steel? What else besides the Sherman 75mm could they have been used for? Any input is greatly appreciated.

J.P. Brescacin

[Gunner]

J.P.

Please post a photo and I'll see what i can dig out of my ammunition tomes.

Mike

[J.P. Brescacin]

I finally got around to taking some pics, the quality of which leaves something to be desired. Can anyone decipher the markings etc? There are also some stampings that don't show in the pics, they are SE 8638 DW 6
75 MM I
N S 0 C2-42
The C before the 2-42 is actually a C broad arrow.
On the base we have 75 MM M18 LOT 425 CL/C 1942.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

J.P.

[John McGillivray]

According to the link below the 75mm M18 shell belongs to the French Designed, American build 75mm M1897A gun. The Artillery Regiments of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Regiments were at first equipped with these types of guns in England, in 1940. However I don’t think that these shells were for the 2nd Division guns.

The 75mm M1897A guns were also mounted on halftracks to make the 75mm Gun Motor Carriage M3. These were widely used by the Americans, and some were supplied to the British. The RCDs in Italy had used a small number of these SP guns also.

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ead.php?t=6239

PA 201371

[Doug Knight]

Hi
According to the Dept of Munitions and Supply history, Canada manufactured 75-mm shells for the Americans following the Lend-Lease agreement. War Supplies Limited, a Crown Corporation whose function was to sell Cdn supplies to the US, secured orders for 700,000 rounds of 75-mm AP shot and 1,000,000 rounds of 75-mm shell. The shells were of US design and inspected by the Inspection Beard of the US and Canada.
As far as actual production goes, I have several references from files in the National Archives – they are not necessarily consistent.
As of 15 April 1942, 1,000,000 rds of QFHE empty shells on order with 643,000 produced, 700,000 empty smoke shells on order with 129,000 produced, 700,000 AP shot on order with 2,000 produced, 2.4 million cartridge cases ordered with 2.393 million produced.
The 75-mm HE round consisted of the HE Shell M48, Cartidge case M18, M22A3 or M31A2 primer, and an M48 or M54 fuze. It will chamber in the French M1897 gun (the “French 75”), the American 75-mm M1897, M1917 field guns, and the M2 tank gun on the M3 Lee/Grant tank and the main gun on the M4 Sherman – which may help explain the difficulties encountered by the Sherman with the German tanks. They also fit the aircraft guns on the Mitchell Bomber. Canada used the Sherman and we also had about 100 – not sure of the numbers – of the towed guns for training in Canada early in the war. A couple also ended up as coast defence guns and on the armoured train.
As of 30 June 1944, 1,990,000 rounds of 75-mm smoke had been produced.
Doug