Id on WW2 mortar Fuses ...

[ghandi1945]

found at least one of each of these fuses recently and would be interested to know what mortar they are from if they are from mortars. Any help would be brilliant.
Cheers
Matt

[sado_81]

Hi
Can't help with ID, but bottom one doesn't look like it is safe to keep

[ghandi1945]

its hollow on the inside i just havent cleared the rust from around the threads.

[Christoph1945]

Hi
Can't help with ID, but bottom one doesn't look like it is safe to keep

I Sado, what is it about the bottom one that prompts you to say that it may not be safe to keep? I ask, only to improve my education about those nasty sort of things.

Chris

[ghandi1945]

yes me too thanks for your concern but i too am unsure as to what makes it look dodgey

Thanks Matt

[RRPG]

The top one (and probably the second one as well although it is in a bad way), is from a British 3 inch mortar. The last one I can't quite put my finger on......

And the reason for the concern ?

Well, all fuzes have something called a 'gaine' attached to the bottom of the fuze itself. The gaine's job is to transfer the small power of the inner fuze charge into a more powerful explosion to set the main charge off. Gaine's vary in size and power but most will quite quickly and easily remove a couple of your fingers, if not your entire hand, if you go fiddling with them. The gaine usually looks like a rusty bit of tubing poking out from the base of the fuze, as you can see in the third picture, although it is also found as a brass tube poking from the bottom of a fuze.

This brings us back to the regular discussion about knowing if something is live or not.

If you can't be 100% sure, (and I mean 100%), the item you've dug is inert, LEAVE IT ALONE !



Hope that helps.

RRPG

PS I'll go see if I can find the third fuze in my books.

[Christoph1945]

Aaah, now I see! Thanks for the education Steve.

Chris

[sado_81]

Could third item be a RYG 24/31 Model 1918 fuze?
you can measure it to compare the size

RYG.jpg

Hi
Can't help with ID, but bottom one doesn't look like it is safe to keep

I Sado, what is it about the bottom one that prompts you to say that it may not be safe to keep? I ask, only to improve my education about those nasty sort of things.

Chris

Sorry Chris, I missed your post
Ps Thanks RRPG for explaining why it doesn't look ''safe''
HH

[ghandi1945]

Thanks for all of the replies and help the third fuse doesnt match any i can find at all so it still remains abit strange. Again thanks for all the help given.

Matt

[RRPG]

It has been ID'd ......... see reply above. To add my twopenneth worth......

French
Fuze RYG 24/31 Model 1918
Used in 75mm field gun ammo and 81mm mortar. Used from WW1 and untill after ww2.

Google the above description and you'll find it.

RRPG

[ghandi1945]

So it has, i somehow managed to miss that, cheers once again.