Anyone know about German Arty Warheads?

[viper771]

I know this is for firearms, but its the closest area I could ask this question. I was wondering, does anyone know what kind of warheads these 2 are? One looks like an AP (the left one, solid tip, not sure if fuse in bottom, weighs about 30 lbs), the other one was kind of smashed (weighs around 26 lbs or so). There is no nose piece (it looks like one would be screwed in, but is not there). Any info on these would help! I am been looking on the net forever to find some info on these, but no luck. Any help would be great! Thank you!

I can also take more pictures if necessary.

[Freudendal]

hi,
You could try to contact Zünder on this forum when it come to old shells he is the man to call.
Regards
Freudendal

[viper771]

thanks!

thanks for the info!

Acutally SvenWittnebel, i found these right where innocent people walk all the time, so I am doing them a service. I also found mine fuses about 100 ft from a childrens play ground. We find all kinds of things here in germany still. If my warheads are solid ones, then of course Id bury them. But I am just trying to figure out what size they are, if anti tank or HE, or any info. I am careful in everything i do. I don't want to get hurt either

[viper771]

criminal?

if they are unsafe, i just gotta tell the UXO guys on base and they will pick it up. Farmers have piles of stuff on the side of road after they plow those fields, but those are more or less bombs. I don't plan on keeping them! I am just trying to figure out what size they are is all, and what they were used for.

[Zünder]

Oh boy...

left is a german AP HE, left looks like a german HE.
For you're sake i hope the left hasn't got a 88 mm diameter.

There's only one thing to do.
Do not touch them.
Call you're local bombsquad and have it removed.

[gew98]

I remember when I was youg and 'crazy'. Myself and a buddy would walk downrange ( 59A) at Ft Dix and try and detonate Dragon & Tow missles we found in the high grass that did not go off when launched. Had some go boom - lots of ****s and giggles then but I got that out of my system thankfully.
We even took M80'S and 'ashcans' and used them to detonate those 'golden golf balls' ( UXB M203 m406 HE 40 mike rounds ). Sometimes we even built a small fire on top of them and cooked them off.
My advice on such things is just leave them alone - especially if you know not what you are dealing with. I worked at a salvage yard over a decade ago and lost a good friend/coworker to a 105mmHE round that was stuffed in a very rusted steel pipe. He unknowingly picked it up with the LaBounty shear attached to his Linkbelt 4300 excavator and when he cut the pipe he caught the shell and blew the machine and himself to an almost unrecognizeable pile.
Small arms ammo does not bother me at all - but the 'big stuff'...I no longer have the strange desire to play with. The one round you have may just be a solid shot with trace element in the back end...or something mucho bad that a temp change or slight knock could set off. No telling and not worth chancing .

[viper771]

thanks for info

Ah i never said I was going to keep this stuff! I was just wondering what size they were, and what kind of rounds they could be. If I find stuff like this, I just take pictures and re bury them deep, like the british mills "bomb" (frag grenade) I found.


gew98, I think one of my drill sgts went to ft dix. I guess the place closed down though. He was one of the last cycles to go though there.

My neighbor saw them and said the one on the left was too small for an 88mm. He said maybe 105mm or less. I did find a lot of used casings for these larger rounds (those are safe, they were shot, and the cases were empty).

I didn't mean for anyone to get fired up about this stuff. I don't want to get hurt, and I don't want others to get hurt either.

thanks for the info everyone

[Zünder]

I don't want to get hurt, and I don't want others to get hurt either.

Well if you want to stay alive, you should STOP taking pictures and reburrying ammunition.

Apart from it being you're duty to report this stuff to the EOD, you're also risking you're life every time.

You say you once found a MK36 Mills bomb.
Do you know what the hazards of some dug MK36 are ?
Do you know that the inner core of the safety pin is sometimes completely rusted away; leaving the other crust of the pin in a extreme fragile state.
By the time you've discovered one, the pin's crust might allready have crumbled, which leaves you a few seconds to realize you have to run for you're life.

All in all, both shells you've found contain around 1 kg of TNT combined, which is not something you want to rebury so that others might stumble across it in the future.

Get on the phone, and report it to the local authorities.

[viper771]

the autobahn

Yeah i have been trying to find pictures of that! yes I did hear about that.. must of been a 500lb or 1000lb bomb! That was crazy! I thought they do scans of the ground before they do that kind of construction?

yeah I will give this stuff to the guys so they can dispose of it, so you guys can rest easy.

does anyone know where to get a diffused AP warhead (i have seen pictures of some)? I would like one for my collection.

sorry if i stirred up a hornets nest here. Will the bomb guys blow up the stuff when I give it to them?

[Zünder]

Yes, both will be blown up.

Infact, the "Sprengschule Dresden" even advices to blow the left one(10 cm Pzgr rot) up on site.