crate for demolition charges

[Bern]

A friend of my son gave this crate to me a few years ago, said he found it in the attic of an old house. It appears to be dated for 1945, so I'm wondering if it was manufactured during the war or shortly after? The only info I can find on PE 3A is that it was used by the military for demolition purposes. I'd like to fabricate some dummy charges to display along side the crate, so if anyone could provide images of the actual charges, they would be greatly appreciated. I have seen replica PE 2, PE 4 and PE 4A but not PE 3A. Looking forward to any info that you may be able to provide.
Regards
Bern

[kradman]

Nice box yes it would hold 10 charges of PE 3A for demolition purposes for blowing up bridges etc, we are using PE 8 now days

[pete]

.

Hi Bern,

I have seen these type of crates before, with the actual PE3A inside, which i had to open and count and were all in little "Vienna Sausages" like we have in Canada. Once in Sudan i had to drive north of Khartoum out to a Sudanese Army Ammo depot and pick up many of these for the UN. I had never seen nor heard of PE3A before that, and even when i told some other EOD Operators some of them hadn't either, and they were even questioning me that i was confused too! I figured at the time that it must be very old stuff. Its kind of yellowish/tan color if i recall, it worked very good though compared to using old ancient Russian TNT Blocks or being sent C4 quarrying explosives by someone who had no clue what they were sending us

I can't post the photos unless somebody does it for me, however happy to do that.




Best REgards,

Pete

[pete]

Hi Bern,

I have seen these type of crates before, with the actual PE3A inside, which i had to open and count and were all in little "Vienna Sausages" like we have in Canada. Once in Sudan i had to drive north of Khartoum out to a Sudanese Army Ammo depot and pick up many of these for the UN. I had never seen nor heard of PE3A before that, and even when i told some other EOD Operators some of them hadn't either, and they were even questioning me that i was confused too! I figured at the time that it must be very old stuff. Its kind of yellowish/tan color if i recall, it worked very good though compared to using old ancient Russian TNT Blocks or being sent C4 quarrying explosives by someone who had no clue what they were sending us

I can't post the photos unless somebody does it for me, however happy to do that.




Best REgards,

Pete

So here was what the contents looked like, i have a feeling it was probably Indian/Pakistan made. The Crates and internal boxes were all dated 1991, i see your crate is '45. The writing wasn't in block white like yours though it was in thin yellow although the crates were the same.