York's famous Machinegun finds a home

[Brad Posey]

I did not intend for this to become a treatise on French ammunition, but it is extremely important to properly identify this ammunition since it was used in both WW I and WW II. The differences are there and you must examine each 8mm cartridge - individually under magnification. This includes fired 8mm projectiles.

In 1898 the French Army adopted the 8mm “Balle D” cartridge for use in the Mle 1886 Lebel Rifle. Balle D remained in service for the duration of the war.

In 1932 a replacement cartridge for Balle D was introduced and it was known as Cartouche Mle 1932 or “Balle N”. It was designed for use in the Lebel and Berthier rifles marked “N” on the receiver meaning that they had been modified for the new cartridge.

Note the cupro-nickle jacket on the last cartridge on the right. Another dead give away you are handling a post WW I artifact if you see this. We found three variants of projectile jackets on the Balle N cartridges we found. They are; copper jacket, cupro-nickle jacket and a jacket that has a high ferrous content that causes the entire projectile jacket to rust – the core is made of lead on all three variants.

[Brad Posey]

The head stamps is the first clue as to whether the 8mm cartridge in question is Balle D or Balle N. Here you can see the one on the left dated “17” for year of manufacture 1917 - this is Balle D. The one on the right is stamped “36” for production year 1936 - this is Balle N.

[Brad Posey]

Here you see the base of both the Balle D on the left and Balle N on the right. This is also very important as the entire battlefield west of Hill 233 is peppered with fired 8mm projectiles. Most are from WW I and are a result of the barrage fire laid down by American machine gun crews during the initial phase of the attack on the morning of 8 October or from Chauchat squads in the infantry assault platoons.

However, the odd WW II era fired 8mm projectile did turn up and were easily identified by looking at the base. On fired examples of Balle D the lettering on the base is often no longer visible, but they will have no hole that exposes the lead core as will all of the post WW I Balle N examples do.

[Brad Posey]

To the inexperienced researcher this cartridge could be mistaken for the German 7.92mm cartridge, but it clearly is not and should be easy to spot. These were found in great numbers on this ridge.

Here is a look at the cartridge, projectile and 5-round stripper clips for the French MAS-36 Rifle cartridge known as the 7.5mm Mle 1924 Balle C.

[Brad Posey]

The base of 7.5mm Balle C

[Brad Posey]

And last a photo of samples of several other types of ammunition found. Note: the rusted 8mm projectile jackets.

[Brad Posey]

While we are discussing ammunition and while I am thinking of the topic for tomorrow, I would like to show two pretty rare German cartridges that I found on the east bank of the creek about 15 to 20 meters north of the old dam. The cartridges were not found together, they were separated by about 5 meters. In 2006 Dr. Nolan found one fired cartridge of this type in the same area.

This is the German 13.2mm Model 1918 Anti-Tank Rifle (Tankgewehr 18) cartridge. The cartridge is marked “18” on the bottom and the projectile contains a tungsten core. The core you see in the photos came from one of the projectile that fell apart disarming it.

Major Tillman in his report says that 2/328 captured several anti-tank rifles that morning, but he does not specify where. Obviously there was at least one of these rare weapons here at some point during the battle.

[Brad Posey]

Here you can see the Tungsten core

[Brad Posey]

I will end tonight round with a series of photos of some of the German personal equipment items that we found in the ravine bottom and on the western facing slope where the prisoners were the fight took place.

Here is a group of artifacts found in the same hole. Could be the contents of bread bag since there was a bread bag clip found, also a leather and brass piece from a M1898 Spade Carrier.

[Brad Posey]

Boot Polish Tin

[Brad Posey]

Chewing Tobacco Tim

[Brad Posey]

Remains of a leather gas mask. A great number of gas mask filters and eye pieces were found.

[Brad Posey]

A German soldier's clay ink well

[Brad Posey]

A German M1915 Mess Kit

[Brad Posey]

German tooth brush