I have a ashtray my grandfather (US Army Air Force) brought back which is made from Weimar/Nazi era artillery shell and 3 French coins. I was wondering if anyone could give me more info on it? - Was it produced in violation of the Treaty of Versailles? I can't find a definition of Light or Heavy artillery in the treaty. - Why is the case head Weimar era but the primer is Nazi era? - Did the Nazi's reload artillery shells in the field, similar to metallic cartridge reloading? - Did they just not bother to load the shell until the Nazi's took power? - Can anyone name the gun/s it was likely shot out of? Thanks. The case head is marked: "P" with a animal symbol (lion, dragon, something mythical?) A stylized letter "R" 1926 5 10cm vz14/19 The primer is marked: M35s "Dc" inside a circle, the numbers "28" and "40" next to it "88D" inside a cricle, the numbers "14" and "4.0" next to it A bird carrying a swastika, with "WBA728" underneath it, this is stamped twice.
10cm is equal to a 105mm gun round, and i do know brass was reused so it probably was indeed used in the field then sent back to an ammo factory and reloaded, those codes on the primer would tell when it was reloaded.but i don't know them. if i remember correctly, germany was allowed to make a certain number of rounds of the smaller caliber ammo each year.
It is a Czech 10cm. case originally made in 1926 that was reused by the Germans. The stamp on the primer is actually "WaA728" which is a Waffen Amt inspection mark. There is a figure that looks like "40" on the primer so that is probably the reload date.
This is the artillery piece the case did come from. Skoda houfnice vz 14 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
