Artillery Round from WWII?

[barb.mich]

I found this on the beach (Emerald Isle, North Carolina) while walking during low tide earlier this week. It appears to be an artillery round from, well, I'm hoping it was from WWII! It appears to be brass, and on the bottom is written 40 mm MK2 Lot 0484 and some other markings I cannot read. It stands 12 inches tall and 2.5 inches across the base. Sure am wondering where it came from, and is it possible it's been in the water since the 40's? Thanks in advance! Barb

 

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[Retired Sarge]

Looks like a 40mm shell.

Just went back and read and saw where you said that ready. Modern AC-130 Gunships have a 40mm Bofors gun on them. Could have come from someone's collection. The older shells were brass and the later ones made from steel.

Most of the older shells were dated, so you'll have to clean it up and see if you can find a date on it and the rest of the head stamp. Quick note, upto sometime around 2017, the USAF was reloading WWII 40mm brass shells for use with the AC-130 Gunship. So there are/were WWII era shells still being used up to 2017. I think the last of the Gunships with the 40mm Bofors might be retired now.

Welcome to TNet and the madness from Panama City Florida, we have some pretty smart knowledgeable members. So stick around and enjoy the weirdness and fun.

Here's my 40mm shells from a Gunship mission over Bosnia.

 

[Retired Sarge]

OK after looking at it some more I see what looks like 1-44 at the 3 o'clock position of the shell, that would make it a WWII era shell.

 

[Retired Sarge]

Your markings are as follows.

Anchor symbol: Some say for a Naval round.
Triangle L: Manufacturer mark for Lyon, Inc. Detroit, Michigan.
40mm: Shell caliber 40mm Bofors Cannon.
Mk 2: Meaning a brass shell (Mk 3 were steel shells)
LOT NO 0484: Lot number of the shell in case there are issues with it.
AL: Don't know at this time, but might be a marking showing it had been reloaded.
1-44: Manufactured date of Jan 1944.

Primer area:
Can't read the stampings there.

Here's a picture to show what your head stamp would look cleaned up.

 

[barb.mich]

Hi Mike, thanks for taking the time to reply! I am happy to know the artillery shell is from the 40's! My father was in WWII, and our son is a CWO4 in the Marine Corps, so I have a keen interest in all things military. Thanks again for your posts. Barb

 

[Retired Sarge]

Hi Mike, thanks for taking the time to reply! I am happy to know the artillery shell is from the 40's! My father was in WWII, and our son is a CWO4 in the Marine Corps, so I have a keen interest in all things military. Thanks again for your posts. Barb

Thank you for your Father's and Son's service. My Dad, Father-in-Law, Brother and I are Retired USAF, and my oldest son a prior Marine (Left the Corps to go to college fulltime).

A little elbow grease and you might be able to clean the casing up nicely and make a cool display out of it.

It was used in a 40mm Bofors Cannon aka Pom Pom Gun.

 

[Fat]

Mike thank you for your service.
Your display is beautiful.
Your explanation is the stuff banners are made of.

 

[No gold in NY]

Nice detective work ffuries.

 

[barb.mich]

Thanks Mike - and same to you and your family! Your son really took a walk on the wild side by joining the Marines, and not the AF!

My father was in the 12th Armored Div., 23rd Tank Battalion, led by Gen. Patton. They stripped all insignia off their equipment so the German army couldn't predict their location from day to day, as they blasted their way across Germany, liberating death camps along the way. He earned the Bronze Star for bravery, and should have been awarded the Purple Heart as he was wounded in battle, but he never fought to get it, he just wanted to make it home and forget. He didn't speak of it for almost 50 years, when I started asking him about his experiences. Little did I know I had opened the floodgates! We made it to 3 reunions before he passed away. (He never knew they were having them every year since 1945!)

As to this shell, how would I clean it? Buff it out? I did some searching on the net and found that 3 weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, there were German subs in the waters off our eastern coast. A research team has discovered a shipwreck 35 miles off the cost of Cape Hatteras - a German sub, U-576, which was involved in a battle with a US cargo ship named MS Bluefields. Both sank on July 15, 1942 in a battle lasting just minutes, and lie side-by-side on the ocean floor. All hands survived from the US ship, but the 45 German crewmen of the U-576 are entombed inside. I never knew this piece of history, that we were fighting the war on our east coast!

We are staying in a condo until April, so I'll be on that beach looking for more relics. My hubby just bought a MineLab Equinox 800, so who knows what we may find! Thanks again for your help!

 

[Tony in SC]

The Army and Air Corp used the beaches of NC and SC for practice in the 30's & 40's. We used to find all kinds of shell and ammo in the 70's.

 

[Retired Sarge]

Thanks Mike - and same to you and your family! Your son really took a walk on the wild side by joining the Marines, and not the AF! ......

Every family ends up with a crayon eater......He was ours!

 

[Retired Sarge]

Thanks Mike - and same to you and your family! Your son really took a walk on the wild side by joining the Marines, and not the AF!

My father was in the 12th Armored Div., 23rd Tank Battalion, led by Gen. Patton. They stripped all insignia off their equipment so the German army couldn't predict their location from day to day, as they blasted their way across Germany, liberating death camps along the way. He earned the Bronze Star for bravery, and should have been awarded the Purple Heart as he was wounded in battle, but he never fought to get it, he just wanted to make it home and forget. He didn't speak of it for almost 50 years, when I started asking him about his experiences. Little did I know I had opened the floodgates! We made it to 3 reunions before he passed away. (He never knew they were having them every year since 1945!)

As to this shell, how would I clean it? Buff it out? I did some searching on the net and found that 3 weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, there were German subs in the waters off our eastern coast. A research team has discovered a shipwreck 35 miles off the cost of Cape Hatteras - a German sub, U-576, which was involved in a battle with a US cargo ship named MS Bluefields. Both sank on July 15, 1942 in a battle lasting just minutes, and lie side-by-side on the ocean floor. All hands survived from the US ship, but the 45 German crewmen of the U-576 are entombed inside. I never knew this piece of history, that we were fighting the war on our east coast!

We are staying in a condo until April, so I'll be on that beach looking for more relics. My hubby just bought a MineLab Equinox 800, so who knows what we may find! Thanks again for your help!

Pretty hard to nail down when the shell ended up where it did. WWII era shells were reloaded, reused and even still in the supply system years after the war. Then there is the fact that many people have them as souvenirs and a recent hurricane could have destroyed a house and washed the casing away.

With the amount of ammo, guns, shell casings, militaria, etc in our house if it washed away people would think there was a battlefield here.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of build-up aka encrustation, so I wouldn't think it's been down there 77 years or so, but then you never know. As for cleaning, there is a section here on TNet that should give you answers on that, see link.

Cleaning & Preservation

My dad was in Vietnam and that affected him, I did Desert Storm, Bosnia, Afghanistan, my brother did Bosnia and Iraq. My FIL and son never made it to a war zone. I have family that was in WWII on the American side, Dutch side and German side. They were all affected by what they experienced in WWII, and all came home changed.......

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Pretty much every US Navy ship bigger than a rowboat had 40mm Bofors anti aircraft guns, and I believe most of the transport ships were supplied with them as well. My guess on yours would be a target practice round from WW2 that spent a long time buried in the sand on the seabed and was brought up by beach replenishment fairly recently. It's definitely a cool find and not something you see on the beaches every day. If my thought is right and it was dredged up during beach replenishment you might find a few more nearby as well.

 

[DCMatt]

I did some searching on the net and found that 3 weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, there were German subs in the waters off our eastern coast. A research team has discovered a shipwreck 35 miles off the cost of Cape Hatteras - a German sub, U-576, which was involved in a battle with a US cargo ship named MS Bluefields. Both sank on July 15, 1942 in a battle lasting just minutes, and lie side-by-side on the ocean floor. All hands survived from the US ship, but the 45 German crewmen of the U-576 are entombed inside. I never knew this piece of history, that we were fighting the war on our east coast!

There is also the U-352 about 26 miles off Morehead City, NC. Sunk by the US Coast Guard May 9, 1942. I did a dive on the wreck back in the 90's. It is one of my most memorable.

The wreck was discovered by recreational divers in the 1970's and created a bit of an international incident when the bones of German sailors were brought up and displayed in a local dive shop.