Beach detecting find for ID

[MattB123]

Hi all

A bit of beach detecting today yielded lots of melted aluminium and this - my knowledge of ordnance and military history is terrible so please forgive me. Any help in ID'ing would be great. Hopefully the images are OK - I'm new to posting images for ID so hopefully they're good enough. I'm guessing a fin from some sort of grenade? I was dead chuffed to see that it also had writing on the bottom (again, completely the wrong terminology I'm sure) - Dominion No 28 Canada Canuck. A quick look suggested a Canadian arsenal called Dominion? Thanks for reading and for any further information.

Matt

[fred]

The finned thing is from a WW2 2 inch mortar.

One with your markings mentioned on here:

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/restorati ... uer-16811/

[MattB123]

Brilliant - thanks for that Fred. It makes such a difference when you can see what something would have looked like!

[fred]

Brilliant - thanks for that Fred. It makes such a difference when you can see what something would have looked like!

They are relatively common finds although these days most of them are in pretty rough nick.

[Oxgirl36]

Great first ID request and lovely photos

[MilitaryMetalMagnut]

‘Dominion’ is for Dominion Arsenal, Montreal, Quebec.
As Fred says, it’s a tail fin from a 2 inch mortar.

The cartridge in the fins is a modified 28 gauge shotgun shell but with out the shot, instead is filled to the brim with powder, and is what launches the bomb from the mortar tube.

Your fins are made of zinc which helps with date. From when the 2 inch entered service in 1937 to 1944, the fins were zinc, from 1944 to when the 2 inch was phased out in the late ‘70s the fins were steel.


Best regards,

Simon

[fred]

‘Dominion’ is for Dominion Arsenal, Montreal, Quebec.
As Fred says, it’s a tail fin from a 2 inch mortar.

The cartridge in the fins is a modified 28 gauge shotgun shell but with out the shot, instead is filled to the brim with powder, and is what launches the bomb from the mortar tube.

Your fins are made of zinc which helps with date. From when the 2 inch entered service in 1937 to 1944, the fins were zinc, from 1944 to when the 2 inch was phased out in the late ‘70s the fins were steel.


Best regards,

Simon

I was cheating though, I once fired one of these when I was in training.

[MilitaryMetalMagnut]

‘Dominion’ is for Dominion Arsenal, Montreal, Quebec.
As Fred says, it’s a tail fin from a 2 inch mortar.

The cartridge in the fins is a modified 28 gauge shotgun shell but with out the shot, instead is filled to the brim with powder, and is what launches the bomb from the mortar tube.

Your fins are made of zinc which helps with date. From when the 2 inch entered service in 1937 to 1944, the fins were zinc, from 1944 to when the 2 inch was phased out in the late ‘70s the fins were steel.


Best regards,

Simon

I was cheating though, I once fired one of these when I was in training.

Ah! That's a bit of a head start!

[MattB123]

Thanks so much for all that detail Simon. I had assumed, for some reason it was aluminium so to hear it is zinc is also interesting. Also just assumed it would have been from WWII but could be later as you say.

[fred]

Thanks so much for all that detail Simon. I had assumed, for some reason it was aluminium so to hear it is zinc is also interesting. Also just assumed it would have been from WWII but could be later as you say.

The zinc fins mean that it was made in the WW2 period. Beaches were heavily used for training so it is likely to have been fired then too.