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    Taurus454

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    Posts posted by Taurus454

    1. Yes. There are many German veteran groups. They range from groups from units, groups by awards, and so on. I have even seen one group by battle (Karelia). Without saying, they are getting fewer and fewer in number.

      Tom

      I had an interesting question posed in class the other day - Do (did) the Wehrmacht veterans of WW II participate actively in veterans' associations after the war? I know that there were many active groups after 1870 and 1918, but what about post-1945?

      Thanks,

      Hugh

    2. To my knowledge, the explosives which become unstable are the nitroglycerin based explosives. The explosive materiel will actually "sweat" the nitro out as droplets. If you can get a drop on your finger and the temperature is right, you can flick it on the ground and it will give a nice snap or small "explosion". Have that happen while still on some propellant, you have a nice ammo "cook-off".

      When the battleship (I forget the name) gun turret went up while they were loading propellant, I figured they had an old lot which had sweated and was unstable. After the homosexual suicide thing blew up in the Navy's face, they relooked it and concluded "early powder misfire". Almost guaranteed to occur with large temperature swings which was the case for the Navy 16" ammo as their storage bunkers which was storing the WW2 propellant weren't sate of the art. BTW, the Navy hadn't had any of that ammo or propellant made since WW2 so you figure what condition it must have been in sitting in some damp moldy ammo bunker.

      If you want to see something cool, check out my recent W33 update on wikipedia. If you want me to answer questions about it, I will as part of a new thread.

      Good Hunting!

      Tom

      I concur with Chris, the "nose" looks like an explosive round. From what I have read and heard these can get more unstable with time. Use extreme caution! These may not have claimed their last victum...yet. speechless1.gif

      Regards

      Brian

    3. They look like old ammunition fuzes. Given the nose, I would have to say it is a PD (point detonating) fuze for an 80mm or larger round. I'm guessing it is a mortar fuze as it appears that it will need a high angle strike on the nose to actually ignite the fuze. They would usually be screwed into the projectile and then fired. From the looks, I'd say there probably isn't a supplementary charge to actually detonate the round in the fuze. The sup charge was probably contained in the round. All the fuze may have contained was an igniter which appears could be fired out the base and set the sup charge off in the projectile. Though the rupture of the fuze at the base in the top photo gives me some cause for alarm because there may have actually been a sup charge in the fuze. All is speculation on my part without actually having the item to examine. The 100% safe bet answer is call police for disposal. Based on the photographic evidence, about a 1 in a million chance it might still go off. Are those odds worth risking your child? That's the decision your friend appears to have made.

      Best of luck!

      Tom

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