It takes great confidence to carry live ordnance anyway.... would it make any difference if they were in full body armor? If anything did go off, the blast would kill them anyway
One of them was wearing what looked like a diaper to me, anyone notice that? Suppose that would come in handy if you accidentally dropped one of the shells on its nose or something.
I sometimes wonder if the typical apathy militaries have, for explaining to soldiers how their own weapons work, is a feature. It reveals the self-starters, I suspect. Unfortunately I think it can also feel alienating to realize you're surrounded by people who don't give a damn.
@@MrCantStopTheRobot tends to be pragmatic in approach, standard infantry pams go into great detail (e.g. artillery effects such as in general for this video and even down to their effects in various climatic conditions, frozen ground, wood, brick etc. Blast effects of calibre types and how best to use or protect against) The main recipients of this kind of educational material will be NCO & above. In addition at unit level there are often related ‘school’ sessions. As a former 30mm gunner you tend to focus on systems you use, your allies or those you’re likely to encounter.
Very interesting video with lots of good information which is not common outside of the military. As an old artilleryman (Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Field Artillery, retired) I can add a few bits of information. Fragment analysis is a subset of the larger area of crater analysis which can provide information about where an enemy is firing from and what weapons he is using. If done promptly it can provide a location for counterbattery fire. There are several good articles on the internet about crater analysis. You can use a template to determine caliber if the fragment preserves part of the original outer wall of the shell and is not too distorted. You can sometimes determine the nationality of a fragment by the shape of the fragment. US shells are made of pretty high quality steel and fragment into pieces with roughly triangular cross sections as shown in your illustration. Russian and some WW1 German shells were made of lower quality steel or even cast iron and fragment into pieces that are more square/cubical. Time fuzes almost always have an impact funtion so that they will explode even if the time is set too long and the shell does not explode in the air. The commonest modern fuzes are impact fuzes which are either super quick or delay. The next most common are mechanical time fuzes which will explode a pre set time after leaving the barrel. The least common are variable time (VT) which has a small rader set in it so that it will explode at a certain height above the ground or near an aircraft if fire by an anti aircraft weapon. VT fuzes were an important innovation by the Allies during WW2 which greatly improve the leathality and effectiveness of both field artillery and antiaircraft fire. Unfortunately, VT fuzes are much more expensive and are used mcu less often than other types of fuzes. Generally, artillery fuzes and shells are shipped sperately and are assembled at the firing position. A high explosive shell may be mated with any type of fuze depending on the particular target to be engaged. You might be able to identify a firing position by a large number of lifting plugs which are in the fuze well during shipping. The lifting plug is removed at the firing position and the fuze inserted. The plugs are then discarded. Some smaller caliber weapons and tank rounds may be shipped with the fuze attached at the factory. The impressions on the driving bands can identify the weapon by measuring the lands and grooves. For example, US WW2 155mm guns and howitzers will have different size lands and grooves impressed into the driving bands. The steeper the trajectory of a shell the more symmetrical the crater will be. So, mortar shells, being a high angle weapon, will leave a rounder crater and a more symmetrical spray of fragments while field artillery or a tank gun, usually being fired at a lower angle, will leave a more asymmetric crater and more pronounced side sprays of fragments. While not relevant to archaeological analysis there is an artillery technique call ricochet fire where a shell is fired with a delay fuze at a low angle. The shell hits the ground and ricochets, leaving a groove in the soil, and explodes after the delay pellet function. It is in a nose up attitude and sends a more effective spray of fragments than a time fuze which explodes in a nose down attitude. While not common in ww2 but frquently used in WW1 are shrapnel (named for the inventor, Captain Henry Shrapnel of the British Army who invented them in the late 18th century) shells which exploded in the air with a time fuze and sent a spray of round balls out ahead of the shell like a shotgun. Technically, only those balls are "shrapnel" and the pieces of an exploded shell body are "shell fragments." However, modern usage refers to any flying bit of metal which is not actually a bullet as "shrapnel." Finally, a shell has a bursting charge while a solid projectile is called "shot.." And assembled round of ammunition in which a projectile, propellant, and casing all come assembled is called a "cartridge." I hope this will be of some value to you and the viewers/readers.
Thanks for taking the time to post all this information. I agree with everything you wrote, and read about much of it in the various manuals, etc, that I used for finding the information about artillery shells. The video just scratches the surface but is already very long.
Fascinating, thank you for taking the time to write it. I will be using this to get a better understanding of what I am seeing when looking at pictures from Ukraine.
Yes, I agree. And for every piece of shrapnel that punched a hole through the helmet, how many more fragments saturated the rest of the soldier's body?
Yeah I always just assumed it was big chunks flying around. Or pieces of stuff like trees, vehicles, timbers, whatever. That blows off something else that did just as much damage. But of course not, because the transfer of energy lost is enormous. I’m also thinking based on the loss of energy over distance, for each shell fragment. You can probably determine the distance it was to the combatant, when it exploded. Minus anything else that was between the shell and the soldier. The ones they found in the skull look no bigger than a piece of gravel. Or a small pebble. It makes sense they would maintain their inertia with less drag, high energy on a small point. Basically becoming a bullet. It makes so much more sense, especially with the cones of shrapnel on the super quick fuse, how some soldiers could be taken out, and others not touched by the same shell just meters apart from one another.
@@sethrice9939 The smaller the fragments, the faster they will lose their energy via drag/friction with the atmosphere, as they have a higher surface/weight ratio (same reason why a larger stone falls faster than a small one). For the small fragments to have pierced a helmet and skull, the victim was probably within meters of the explosion.
Awesome presentation. After finding a timed burst fuse, you could essentially track back time/speed/distance to figure out which artillery unit fired it, based on who was in support.
I metal detect in the Calif desert and find a lot of WW2 fuses and fragments. In some cases, by plotting the angle of the track of the fuse into the ground, i can tell the direction of the firing position of the artillery piece and distance from the target. I learned it from a old Navy SEAL that tracked VC mortar positions because the VC had a trick of firing 3 mortar rounds, grabbing the mortar tube and running. They had spare baseplates and left one for the next time they fired from the position. The Navy SEALs would use the data they collected from the impact of the round to find the baseplate. They would carefully lift the baseplate and put a anti tank mine under the baseplate. The next time a tube was put on the baseplate and a round dropped down the tube that was the end of the mortar tube and crew with little to show what happened but a nice Crater…
If you would send me to that crater I would find the evidence that an explosion occurred under the mortar baseplate and that the culprit was a US mine 😄 Thanks for sharing this interesting story.
I have some fuses from the Somme and also a complete Mk1 Mills grenade that came from Vimy Ridge! The fuse has some damage but all the markings are still fully legible, it’s an American cluster shell made at the Bethlehem Steel works, the Grenade body was manufactured at the Acton works in Lewisham London All very fascinating
@@claireingles-sj6xz Where did he say that it was still filled with explosive? You can have all the working parts of a grenade (Complete) and have no explosive in it. I think you are making an assumption because he didn't say it was filled or not. I am going to assume it is INERT as I don't think he has a death wish
Awesome and extraordinary video. I served years ago as instructor and in my opinion your explanations about how work these lethal things, are the best of the best. Specially when you show the real effects on real people. Many people never speak about that. Real war and weapons are very different of Hollywood films or videogames. Congratulations for your brilliant work. Best regards.
12:19 Is the German "Aufschlagzünder 23 Neuer Bauart" which roughly translates to: Impact Fuze 23 new Kind 12:30 is the German "Leichter Infantrie Granatenzünder 23 Neuer Art" which means roughly: Light Infantery Fuze 23 new Kind 13:14 The "Waa" Stamp is for the "Waffenabnahmeamt" Gutes Video! Grüße aus Deutschland
Mobniks. Russia's economy isn't in utter collapse because it's government now employs half the population. What, you expect them to provide them with equipment? They get the cheapest children's metal detector possible and a shovel.
Never seen such a deep dive of shells like this! Its very facinating. I never realized the timers were set by powder like that, and so can show what it was set to.
Learning how these fuses work make me think of the risks of handling 70 year old and corroded UXO. Does the interruptor close again once the shell is buried? Perhaps not if it’s damaged? Are the fuses watertight enough to preserve the primers and powder trains? I’ve kinda had a caviler attitude towards it especially when watching diggers on RUclips handle UXO like piles of scrap. Understanding the how mechanism works and can fail makes me more aware of the danger 😅
Hey, months back I commented on another one of your videos on how the smallest fragments of shell shrapnel can go into or through someone’s head without a single drop of blood. I believe I referenced an excavation of a soldier who, at first glance, didn’t appear to show any injuries. But when you guys took the skull out of the ground, a tiny splinter of rusted shrapnel fell out of the skull. Something to that effect. Anyway, you said that prompted you to think of a good video to do on the topic. Well, I’ve been waiting for that video and here it is. Lol. Sweet. And I just finished watching your video and yup, you definitely got the idea for this video from me!! Lol. Very entertaining. Good stuff thanks for posting it!
I used to test M68/L10 105mm HEAT tank rounds, by hitting the top cap with a 2lb ball-peen hammer. If it didn't go off , I would say "Dud round" and then go to next one. Could scare the hell out of many people, by me doing that "dud round" test. (I learned that test from a Bugs Bunny War-time cartoon) LOL But that was the intent. I could figure out who knows something about those tank rounds and who didn't. Those rounds had a base detonating fuze. They wont go off hitting them on the head. And it was a thrill, hitting tank rounds with a hammer, and being in the moment, " A Bugs Bunny Cartoon." . You gotta know who is comfortable with all that explosive around you and them. Sometimes people freeze when they see something that they think might/will explode a shell or explosive, when it actually won't. You need to know who those are, so you can either train them, or avoid them them when the "SHTF".
I Found around the wooden hills in the south of vienna lot of 6 to 10 meter diameter craters on the ground in this woods. After a few minutes detecting I found a lot of big 8.8 and 12.8 Flak munition shrapnels After a litlle history reserch, those were the hills from where the Russians saw Vienna for the first time and the defenders of the city had their first contact with the Russians. The defenders shot at these hills from the flak towers for days with lot of 8.8 and 12.8 twin flak cannons. There are countless pieces of shrapnels there, so you have to turn off the all metal mode on the detector because otherwise you'll listen to techno music 😉😁
EXTREMELY interesting & thanks! Having been a student of this for decades, I "thought" I knew the subject well, but I didn't, not until now; so again, Thank You!👍🇺🇸
Great job. The driving band also work as a pressure seal which helps with the complete combustion of the gunpowder and keeping the pressure curve in check as the gas from the gunpowder conversion from solid to gas expands in the bore creating velocity. Gunpowder in artillery shells is not always blackpowder but a progressive smokeless propellant (smokeless powder)which needs the proper seal to keep pressures low whilst slowing expanding driving the shell down the bore at a faster and faster speed.
That was like being on a course at work....only really interesting 😅...great stuff Jean-Loup a definite education. Its gruesome what shell fragments can do to a person...another great video m8, all the best 😊😊😊😊
Jean, I found your video very informative. It explained the difference between the shells very well. I was not aware that shells could be 'switched' to act in different ways. My Great Grandfather was mortally wounded by a shell in WW1. From the War Diary, I know the location to within a few hundred metres in a particular road. My plan is to go to that location and try to find the fuse from a German shell. Thank you for the video.
So interesting! Very well done! Thank you for posting this. Do we have any statistics about unexploded ordinance blowing up when diggers were recovering soldiers remains? Blast safety doesn’t seem to be a concern for Russian diggers nowadays because most of the shell fuse mechanisms and explosives are no longer functional. It wasn’t the case however in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, that’s why I’m wondering how many people died while digging back then?
I dont have statistics, but 2 people were killed at the diggers camp shown in this vid, a couple of years later. But they broke the rules and tried to dismantle a shell. In the end the shell inverted the process.
@ 21:33 that's a cool note about the time ring bulging out where the time ring was set. *Edited because right after I commented you covered the "Safe" setting on the fuse ring to use it in Superquick mode. Great content!
Forensic pathologist AND munitions expert? Geez, is there room in that brain for anything else? (besides arteries, veins, and CSF, of course. 😉) Seriously though. You are a gifted teacher. I have a pretty good base in pathology, but never thought I would be able to understand engineering so easily (MATH, AAAH). You combine the two seemingly disparate knowledge bases extremely well. (I thought my BS Biology/English lit. Double major and later AA in Histology was bad) It is a bit sad that the two NEED to be combined, but I'm glad you are there to help bring these lost men home. They may have lost their lives, but you have given them back their identity. Thank you for all the work you, and the teams you are apart of, do. It frankly gives me the willies watching you guys handle all that old ordinance. Safety mechanisms be darned. Ca-jo-nes. Of the titanium variety. History may be written by the winners, but the truth is revealed by the archaeologists and forensic osteologists. ❤
The rusted iron fragments from decades ago don’t tell the whole truth. It was extremely sobering as a new soldier in training back in the ‘80s to visit a fresh artillery impact area for the first time. Everywhere you looked there were small pieces of extremely sharp and jagged iron. How sharp? You could easily cut yourself by just handling them. Forget about keeping a piece as a souvenir because it would cut its way through a pocket just by its own weight. Just like a razor blade on every edge. And then to imagine thousands of these things flying around at supersonic speed - it made the reason for always being told to dig a “shell scrape” (a shallow hole to lay in) whenever we stopped moving very real.
That is quite interesting flying clay mores dam😂 I could see why people were so scared the enemy of course the civilian population probably didn’t have no idea
Driving bands have been made from copper, brass, lead, zinc, tin, and some late war German ones were steel. Im sure other soft metals have been used also.
My uncle was in a driving band. from his place in the brass section, he could really catch the audience in a groove and send them all spinning. he-he-he
@2:30 "a shell is a bullet over 2 cm." Sorry to nit pick but... A "shell" is just that. A hollow projectile that is filled with something, usually explosives. A "big bullet" that is solid, is called "shot". Tir d' artillerie vs. obus d'artillerie. The dividing line between what is a "bullet" and what is a "shell" (ie; "cannon") is very arbitrary. Technically they are all just "projectiles".
I dont agree with you. There are armour piercing shells still refered to as shells, and not shot. I have never heard of anyone speaking of a 20mm bullet, nor of a .50 caliber/12,7 mm shell. Shells and bullets are indeed projectiles. So is a thrown stone. Not a very specific word. They are also all "things". What is "tir d'artillerie" supposed to mean for you? Why "vs obus d'artillerie"? One mean artillery fire, the other means artillery shell. Anyways, just nit picking back. In a world where medical doctors can not longer agree what the definition of a woman is, how are we supposed to agree on technical terms for various projectailes, with the various differences of English between Canada, Australia, the UK, etc, and the military vocabulary evolving all the time.
@@CrocodileTearDoctors didn’t agree on what “female” was for millennia. The simplest definition is “not male” because the default state for human genitalia is female. 2% of babies have what is termed “errors in sexual differentiation” (and that is the obvious ones). Sex isn’t “simple” or “obvious”. I will guarantee you went to school with someone who has been altered to “female” (by castration of the newborn and remodelled external genitalia) because they didn’t fit the box to be ticked by the paediatrician (a number of countries have now banned this practice after the underlying research was shown to be bogus and leading to elevated suicide rates). A number of US states have banned the counselling of the victims of these surgeries under “gender confirmation counselling”. Politicians make really bad doctors.
Jesus dude, you really think a guy who can identify artillery shells just by tiny shards of metal wouldn't know the proper definition of what a 'shell' is? There are certain basic things that don't need explaining because it's assumed the audience would already have a baseline understanding of the topic.
Great video! My father was very into American Civil War history and we found fragments from that conflict here in the US. Similarly ordinance and parrott rifles had driving bands and you could identify fragments and who shot what from the threads for the fuse or bands since mostly union troops had them.
I take exception to your describing anything over 20mm as a 'shell.' A shell is called that because it contains something - typically an explosive filler. A solid projectile is more properly referred to as a 'shot.' A FSDS round from a tank is not a shell. A HEAT or HE round is. Oh - and smoothbore guns have those bands also. The Driving band on a rifled gun has two functions: 1) to grip the rifling to make it spin and 2) to provide a gas tight seal so the propellant gasses don't leak out and reduce the speed of the projectile. And a smoothbore gun still needs these band to provide a gas seal.
As a fire control specialist I trained to organize fire missions based on analysis of impact of enemy indirect fire. I only had access to impact locations and it’s crazy how much information my section could interpolate JUST from knowing where and what time they landed. Thank you for the insight into what actually happens on the ground
@@CrocodileTear where they are coming from and where the ops are running to after firing. A good starting point is grouping the impacts based on the diameter of the crater. That narrows down the type of weapon that was used. Big hole=big gun and therefore big range. Smaller holes= smaller guns and of course smaller range. Time of impact gives you rates of fire which could indicate a faster or slower type of weapon or the number of launchers being used. Then you make circles respresrnting the possible firing points being used based on the range of the suspected firing piece. At that point geography will narrow down drastically the potential firing points. You can then send patrols to these locations and if the enemy impacts keep landing you know they’re somewhere else. Once you’ve narrowed it down to how ever many points you can attack with your tubes at once you can order preemptive strikes on locations you suspect will be used in the future to launch from. This is necessary because you might already know a few locations they fire from but you don’t know which one they will use the next time they fire. None of these decision are made by the operators in the command center but we can make suggestions to our fire direction officer who then takes them to someone else
That was fascinating, thank you. It was a wonderful and informative presentation. The end of the video showed the frightening consequences of being under shell fire. That really brought it home.
Now I can see why other countries wanna ban certain kinds of weapons on the battlefield this one has a lot of collateral damage carnage that was the purpose of being designed anyway.
Rememer UXO isn´t safe. yes it hasn´t exploded. but that don´t say that. you messing around with it. isn´t going to be the thing that makes it explode.
Heya, I have been searching what happened to my great grandfather. He was MIA in 1942, never to be seen again. Data on him is very limited though. Could you maybe help me?
What's missing is the distinction between direct and indirect fire. A bullet is fired directly. Artillery comes from above. Ofc there are exceptions, machine guns may be used for indirect fire too. A MBT may be used for indirect fire, driving it on a ramp, to elevate the gun.
Great video.. As always you do such a good job making them.. I’m just amazed in how such a small little pebble sized piece of shrapnel can literally punch right through the side of a helmet and shatter the entire side of someone’s skull causing so much damage from such a small little tiny piece of metal.. Keep up the good work…👍
Thank you. I found a beautiful German shell in the Somme Battlefield with a brass fuse and the end cap of the shell still attached. It says: Dopp.Z.92 SP.16 It has a timing ring on it, still I. Great condition, I can spin it. Minimum damage. I always wondered how it could look so clean, a few gouges on the tip but nearly perfect. Now I understand. It must have been set to times air burst.
Thank you for implementing a humane note at the end of the video. We people need that. Not to live life as mindless creatures, like robots doing mathematical calculations and choices, but to stop and realize, its us, human beings, in a way brothers and sisters, all of us. Each of those soldiers you examined were men and women with personalities, families, hopes and aspirations. Each of those shell fragments you found, do deserve scientific admiration and research, but also deserve a sort of despise from us, a note of rejection and hate towards it, as it is a dark side of humanity we sometimes have to face.
Thanks for the informative video. Is super quick fuze really necessary when you have penetrating delay fuze that works by deceleration? You could set delay to 0 and the shell would immediately explode when it hits the ground right?
Merci beaucoup pour vos explications et schémas, c'est vraiment très intéressants à suivre, dommage que la traduction en français a un peu de mal avec certains mots mais le principal est là. À quand une vidéo explicative de la sorte en français ?🤔 Bonne continuation à vous 👍
Merci. Je vous invite a regarder certaines de mes vidés en Francais (celle sur le résistant disparu Francis Tonner par exemple). Pour faire très bref, comme personne ne les regarde, j'ai arrêté de perdre mon temps à les faire.
I am very familiar with ballistics when dealing with rifle and handgun projectiles but I've found it very difficult to imagine a very tiny fragment of metal having enough mass and energy to pass through a helmet and still have sufficient energy to enter a skull pass through brain matter, exit the opposite side of the skull and finally exit the opposite side of the helmet. I realize this is not the path the vast majority of shrapnel takes but even just entering one side of a helmet to cause a fatal wound I find remarkable and your explanation is quite enlightening. Even a bullet with it's aerodynamic design has many forces working against it in an attempt to alter its course, slow its speed, and reduce it's energy to make it less effective for the job it was created to do so a tiny blob of steel really has an uphill battle . Seeing the chart of velocity versus distance was really quite helpful. Thanks
Tiny fragments wont go in and out. But larger ones can go clean through a head and helmet, as shown here. For the full details about that German helmet with the entrance and exit, watch this video: ruclips.net/video/C1nTdO30Pio/видео.html
Awesome video!! Subscribed. I’ve always wondered how this worked. So question… is there a main cause in the fuse for when shells fail to detonate or become duds??
That probably depends of the every shell type. I think a main reason for example in the mountains is shells hitting a rock with the side of their fuze, and then deviating, and never having the actual nose of the fuze hit the ground. As shown in the video, these things are pretty much clockwork, and any of the numerous steps could malfunction.
@@CrocodileTear My condolences! Yes, Stalingrad was one of the most historic battles studied by everyone, including the U.S. Army. .. btw, I agree that finds should be treated with care, including historic preservation and documentation. Great video!
The speed the powder train burns at remains the same, but when the fuze is set roratiting the disk, the powder train has to burn for a longer distance before reaching the hole connecting it to the next step. See the illustration at 20:10
seems as though one could even identify the exact equipment that fired a shell if they had it available for investigation. By the way, it is "fuse" not "fuze"
As you know there are variations of English. I invite you to see the wikipedia page entitled "fuZe": "Some professional publications about explosives and munitions distinguish the "fuse" and "fuze" spelling.[5][6] The UK Ministry of Defence states (emphasis in original): Fuse: Cord or tube for the transmission of flame or explosion usually consisting of cord or rope with gunpowder or high explosive spun into it. (The spelling fuze may also be met for this term, but fuse is the preferred spelling in this context.)[7] Fuze: A device with explosive components designed to initiate a main charge. (The spelling fuse may also be met for this term, but fuze is the preferred spelling in this context.)[8]"
i wonder how those new fuses with the gryo electric gnerator/fins that are semi guided work.. since in a lot of the animations the spinning fins can sometimes stop the spinning of the body of the fuse... probably uses some other safety mechanism for the main fuse? or has none? maybe thats why they come with that weird square plastic case that has to be removed after wrenching it down and before firing another reason why fragments loose energy so quickly is theyre usually made of less dense metal like steal (compared to lead) and also drag increases with the cube of velocity.
I dont know anything about modern munitions. If there are fins, then no gyroscopical spining is needed. There are all sorts of other safety mechanisms that can be used, particularly now with electronics, etc. You are right that the fact the fragments are not made of lead is also a reason why they lose speed faster. People often think that a small rock falls as fast as a big one because of what they learn at school, but they forget that this is wrong when there is an atmosphere.
Holy cow, I always wondered how shell fuses worked! Genius! Awesome video!
This is an incredible lesson!
😂😂🤣😭👍🏻👍🏻classic
Fantastic video. Saved to my favourites.
Came out of curiosity, stayed for the education.
It takes great confidence to carry live ordinance around in a Speedo.
Yeah, I imagine his wife knows when he straps on the banana hammock, it's time to go pick up UXO.
Huge balls
It takes great confidence to do anything in a speedo!
It takes great confidence to carry live ordnance anyway.... would it make any difference if they were in full body armor? If anything did go off, the blast would kill them anyway
One of them was wearing what looked like a diaper to me, anyone notice that? Suppose that would come in handy if you accidentally dropped one of the shells on its nose or something.
Learned more about shells and fuses in your 43 min video than I did in 4 years in the Marine Corps. Very interesting videos, thank you
I guess that makes me even more badass than Gunnery Sergeant Hartman!
@@CrocodileTearDefinitely
I sometimes wonder if the typical apathy militaries have, for explaining to soldiers how their own weapons work, is a feature. It reveals the self-starters, I suspect. Unfortunately I think it can also feel alienating to realize you're surrounded by people who don't give a damn.
@@MrCantStopTheRobot tends to be pragmatic in approach, standard infantry pams go into great detail (e.g. artillery effects such as in general for this video and even down to their effects in various climatic conditions, frozen ground, wood, brick etc. Blast effects of calibre types and how best to use or protect against) The main recipients of this kind of educational material will be NCO & above. In addition at unit level there are often related ‘school’ sessions. As a former 30mm gunner you tend to focus on systems you use, your allies or those you’re likely to encounter.
Very interesting video with lots of good information which is not common outside of the military. As an old artilleryman (Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Field Artillery, retired) I can add a few bits of information. Fragment analysis is a subset of the larger area of crater analysis which can provide information about where an enemy is firing from and what weapons he is using. If done promptly it can provide a location for counterbattery fire. There are several good articles on the internet about crater analysis. You can use a template to determine caliber if the fragment preserves part of the original outer wall of the shell and is not too distorted.
You can sometimes determine the nationality of a fragment by the shape of the fragment. US shells are made of pretty high quality steel and fragment into pieces with roughly triangular cross sections as shown in your illustration. Russian and some WW1 German shells were made of lower quality steel or even cast iron and fragment into pieces that are more square/cubical.
Time fuzes almost always have an impact funtion so that they will explode even if the time is set too long and the shell does not explode in the air. The commonest modern fuzes are impact fuzes which are either super quick or delay. The next most common are mechanical time fuzes which will explode a pre set time after leaving the barrel. The least common are variable time (VT) which has a small rader set in it so that it will explode at a certain height above the ground or near an aircraft if fire by an anti aircraft weapon. VT fuzes were an important innovation by the Allies during WW2 which greatly improve the leathality and effectiveness of both field artillery and antiaircraft fire. Unfortunately, VT fuzes are much more expensive and are used mcu less often than other types of fuzes.
Generally, artillery fuzes and shells are shipped sperately and are assembled at the firing position. A high explosive shell may be mated with any type of fuze depending on the particular target to be engaged. You might be able to identify a firing position by a large number of lifting plugs which are in the fuze well during shipping. The lifting plug is removed at the firing position and the fuze inserted. The plugs are then discarded.
Some smaller caliber weapons and tank rounds may be shipped with the fuze attached at the factory.
The impressions on the driving bands can identify the weapon by measuring the lands and grooves. For example, US WW2 155mm guns and howitzers will have different size lands and grooves impressed into the driving bands.
The steeper the trajectory of a shell the more symmetrical the crater will be. So, mortar shells, being a high angle weapon, will leave a rounder crater and a more symmetrical spray of fragments while field artillery or a tank gun, usually being fired at a lower angle, will leave a more asymmetric crater and more pronounced side sprays of fragments.
While not relevant to archaeological analysis there is an artillery technique call ricochet fire where a shell is fired with a delay fuze at a low angle. The shell hits the ground and ricochets, leaving a groove in the soil, and explodes after the delay pellet function. It is in a nose up attitude and sends a more effective spray of fragments than a time fuze which explodes in a nose down attitude.
While not common in ww2 but frquently used in WW1 are shrapnel (named for the inventor, Captain Henry Shrapnel of the British Army who invented them in the late 18th century) shells which exploded in the air with a time fuze and sent a spray of round balls out ahead of the shell like a shotgun. Technically, only those balls are "shrapnel" and the pieces of an exploded shell body are "shell fragments." However, modern usage refers to any flying bit of metal which is not actually a bullet as "shrapnel."
Finally, a shell has a bursting charge while a solid projectile is called "shot.." And assembled round of ammunition in which a projectile, propellant, and casing all come assembled is called a "cartridge."
I hope this will be of some value to you and the viewers/readers.
Thanks for taking the time to post all this information. I agree with everything you wrote, and read about much of it in the various manuals, etc, that I used for finding the information about artillery shells. The video just scratches the surface but is already very long.
Fascinating, thank you for taking the time to write it.
I will be using this to get a better understanding of what I am seeing when looking at pictures from Ukraine.
This was great information to learn thank you for sharing sir
Forensic munitions, wow.
Thank you SIR .
I was a US Army artillery officer and only already knew about 1/2 of this. Well done.
The part at the end where they compared the shrapnel parts to the holes in people's heads and helmet was crazy
Yes, I agree. And for every piece of shrapnel that punched a hole through the helmet, how many more fragments saturated the rest of the soldier's body?
Yeah I always just assumed it was big chunks flying around. Or pieces of stuff like trees, vehicles, timbers, whatever. That blows off something else that did just as much damage. But of course not, because the transfer of energy lost is enormous. I’m also thinking based on the loss of energy over distance, for each shell fragment. You can probably determine the distance it was to the combatant, when it exploded. Minus anything else that was between the shell and the soldier. The ones they found in the skull look no bigger than a piece of gravel. Or a small pebble. It makes sense they would maintain their inertia with less drag, high energy on a small point. Basically becoming a bullet.
It makes so much more sense, especially with the cones of shrapnel on the super quick fuse, how some soldiers could be taken out, and others not touched by the same shell just meters apart from one another.
@@sethrice9939 The smaller the fragments, the faster they will lose their energy via drag/friction with the atmosphere, as they have a higher surface/weight ratio (same reason why a larger stone falls faster than a small one). For the small fragments to have pierced a helmet and skull, the victim was probably within meters of the explosion.
@@CrocodileTear Instant death?
@@badcornflakes6374 Probably. We just see the skull here, but there may have been numerous other wounds
Awesome presentation. After finding a timed burst fuse, you could essentially track back time/speed/distance to figure out which artillery unit fired it, based on who was in support.
Artillery and everything about it is my hobby for years and this never ever in my life pop in my head. Now I feel so stupid.
I metal detect in the Calif desert and find a lot of WW2 fuses and fragments. In some cases, by plotting the angle of the track of the fuse into the ground, i can tell the direction of the firing position of the artillery piece and distance from the target.
I learned it from a old Navy SEAL that tracked VC mortar positions because the VC had a trick of firing 3 mortar rounds, grabbing the mortar tube and running.
They had spare baseplates and left one for the next time they fired from the position.
The Navy SEALs would use the data they collected from the impact of the round to find the baseplate.
They would carefully lift the baseplate and put a anti tank mine under the baseplate.
The next time a tube was put on the baseplate and a round dropped down the tube that was the end of the mortar tube and crew with little to show what happened but a nice Crater…
If you would send me to that crater I would find the evidence that an explosion occurred under the mortar baseplate and that the culprit was a US mine 😄
Thanks for sharing this interesting story.
Doesn't an anti Tank mine need much much more weight to set it off than an anti personal mine.
@@AndrewCummings-do2bzI think the blast of the mortar would be enough to set it off?
@volca8421 the anti tank varies in psi but I thing many are 500-2000 pounds. I'm not sure how many foot pounds a morter recoils into the ground?
All those brilliant minds just to design creations of death. Mankind isn't really all that kind
I have some fuses from the Somme and also a complete Mk1 Mills grenade that came from Vimy Ridge!
The fuse has some damage but all the markings are still fully legible, it’s an American cluster shell made at the Bethlehem Steel works, the Grenade body was manufactured at the Acton works in Lewisham London
All very fascinating
@@oldfascist38.Is that a US law? He could be anywhere in the world. And anyway, spent fuses aren't explosive.
@@garymitchell5899 The fuses may not be, but the grenade sure is!
@@claireingles-sj6xz Where did he say that it was still filled with explosive? You can have all the working parts of a grenade (Complete) and have no explosive in it. I think you are making an assumption because he didn't say it was filled or not. I am going to assume it is INERT as I don't think he has a death wish
Awesome and extraordinary video. I served years ago as instructor and in my opinion your explanations about how work these lethal things, are the best of the best. Specially when you show the real effects on real people. Many people never speak about that. Real war and weapons are very different of Hollywood films or videogames. Congratulations for your brilliant work. Best regards.
12:19 Is the German "Aufschlagzünder 23 Neuer Bauart" which roughly translates to: Impact Fuze 23 new Kind
12:30 is the German "Leichter Infantrie Granatenzünder 23 Neuer Art" which means roughly: Light Infantery Fuze 23 new Kind
13:14 The "Waa" Stamp is for the "Waffenabnahmeamt"
Gutes Video! Grüße aus Deutschland
This is such an amazing video! Glad I found your channel!
What’s up with those half naked guy doing such dangerous work?
They've done it before. It isn't brave. It isn't stupid. it is somewhere between the two.
Well at least he quit smoking.
Because heat injury is more more of a threat than those very old mortar rounds.
Maybe it's v sweaty work , I'd be shitting myself
Mobniks. Russia's economy isn't in utter collapse because it's government now employs half the population. What, you expect them to provide them with equipment? They get the cheapest children's metal detector possible and a shovel.
What a lecture on how these work. I now am smarter because of you. Thank you so much for creating this content.
Never seen such a deep dive of shells like this! Its very facinating. I never realized the timers were set by powder like that, and so can show what it was set to.
Learning how these fuses work make me think of the risks of handling 70 year old and corroded UXO. Does the interruptor close again once the shell is buried? Perhaps not if it’s damaged? Are the fuses watertight enough to preserve the primers and powder trains? I’ve kinda had a caviler attitude towards it especially when watching diggers on RUclips handle UXO like piles of scrap. Understanding the how mechanism works and can fail makes me more aware of the danger 😅
My brother was explosive ordinance in the navy and did not explain the operation of a fuse as well as you have. Thank you.
Indint wanna be a party pooper but exactly why in the world are they wearing diapers and thongs whilst digging up explosives😂😂😂
The amount of ordnance produced during WW2 is beyond comprehension.
Nothing compared to WW1.
Are you sure?
Great work as always. Thank you for communicating to us like intelligent adults Jean-Loup.
Hey, months back I commented on another one of your videos on how the smallest fragments of shell shrapnel can go into or through someone’s head without a single drop of blood. I believe I referenced an excavation of a soldier who, at first glance, didn’t appear to show any injuries. But when you guys took the skull out of the ground, a tiny splinter of rusted shrapnel fell out of the skull. Something to that effect. Anyway, you said that prompted you to think of a good video to do on the topic. Well, I’ve been waiting for that video and here it is. Lol. Sweet.
And I just finished watching your video and yup, you definitely got the idea for this video from me!! Lol. Very entertaining. Good stuff thanks for posting it!
Grim
I used to test M68/L10 105mm HEAT tank rounds, by hitting the top cap with a 2lb ball-peen hammer. If it didn't go off , I would say "Dud round" and then go to next one.
Could scare the hell out of many people, by me doing that "dud round" test. (I learned that test from a Bugs Bunny War-time cartoon) LOL
But that was the intent. I could figure out who knows something about those tank rounds and who didn't. Those rounds had a base detonating fuze. They wont go off hitting them on the head. And it was a thrill, hitting tank rounds with a hammer, and being in the moment, " A Bugs Bunny Cartoon." .
You gotta know who is comfortable with all that explosive around you and them. Sometimes people freeze when they see something that they think might/will explode a shell or explosive, when it actually won't. You need to know who those are, so you can either train them, or avoid them them when the "SHTF".
Nice vid, elementary at the start, but does grow well.
I Found around the wooden hills in the south of vienna lot of 6 to 10 meter diameter craters on the ground in this woods.
After a few minutes detecting I found a lot of big 8.8 and 12.8 Flak munition shrapnels
After a litlle history reserch, those were the hills from where the Russians saw Vienna for the first time and the defenders of the city had their first contact with the Russians. The defenders shot at these hills from the flak towers for days with lot of 8.8 and 12.8 twin flak cannons. There are countless pieces of shrapnels there, so you have to turn off the all metal mode on the detector because otherwise you'll listen to techno music 😉😁
Super informative article about archeological battles and the cost in lives. The 1% of shards tells us 90% of the story.
EXTREMELY interesting & thanks! Having been a student of this for decades, I "thought" I knew the subject well, but I didn't, not until now; so again, Thank You!👍🇺🇸
Damn, the coin! What a lucky guy who had it in his pocket. What an artifact!
Not that lucky, he had accidentally swallowed that coin the day before.
I am afraid it was found in the soldier's grave. The shell didnt only produce one fragment.
I WAS IN A 155MM US ARMY ARTILLERY FORWARD OBSERVER.THANK YOU..VERY INTERESTING..
@dezertraider thank you
Great job. The driving band also work as a pressure seal which helps with the complete combustion of the gunpowder and keeping the pressure curve in check as the gas from the gunpowder conversion from solid to gas expands in the bore creating velocity. Gunpowder in artillery shells is not always blackpowder but a progressive smokeless propellant (smokeless powder)which needs the proper seal to keep pressures low whilst slowing expanding driving the shell down the bore at a faster and faster speed.
Other direction, smokeless makes more power with more compression
Kinda like the old cordite they used to use?
That was like being on a course at work....only really interesting 😅...great stuff Jean-Loup a definite education. Its gruesome what shell fragments can do to a person...another great video m8, all the best 😊😊😊😊
Fascinating. Highly lucid presentation, highly informative.
Probably best video about artillery shells i seen yet. I was looking for information about fuzes and your explanation is best. Thank you.
Please keep in mind this stops in 1945 so is probably horribly outdated.
Jean, I found your video very informative. It explained the difference between the shells very well. I was not aware that shells could be 'switched' to act in different ways.
My Great Grandfather was mortally wounded by a shell in WW1. From the War Diary, I know the location to within a few hundred metres in a particular road. My plan is to go to that location and try to find the fuse from a German shell.
Thank you for the video.
If you find the fuse, please post a video about your great grandfather's story if you can.
@@wolfthegreat87 I will. Thank you for your comment.
@@paulbradford8240 Best of luck in your search, I'll keep my eye on your channel.
So interesting! Very well done! Thank you for posting this.
Do we have any statistics about unexploded ordinance blowing up when diggers were recovering soldiers remains?
Blast safety doesn’t seem to be a concern for Russian diggers nowadays because most of the shell fuse mechanisms and explosives are no longer functional. It wasn’t the case however in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, that’s why I’m wondering how many people died while digging back then?
I dont have statistics, but 2 people were killed at the diggers camp shown in this vid, a couple of years later. But they broke the rules and tried to dismantle a shell. In the end the shell inverted the process.
@@CrocodileTear Subtle humor...
Humor sutil...
Excellent. Very concise and informative. Thanks for posting this.
this channel is amazing.. and this specific video is so informative and easy to follow.. much appreciated my brother.. much love and respect from NJ
Very interesting, and informative. It actually fills in a number of questions from way back. Thank you.
@ 21:33 that's a cool note about the time ring bulging out where the time ring was set. *Edited because right after I commented you covered the "Safe" setting on the fuse ring to use it in Superquick mode. Great content!
As a flight surgeon we learned about the wounds, but in pathology in med school only elementary ballistics.
Thanks, very informative. I learned a new term, " conflict archaeology"👍🇺🇸💀
This is a fantastic channel. I find information here that I find nowhere else. Thank you for your work and your research.
Forensic pathologist AND munitions expert? Geez, is there room in that brain for anything else? (besides arteries, veins, and CSF, of course. 😉) Seriously though. You are a gifted teacher. I have a pretty good base in pathology, but never thought I would be able to understand engineering so easily (MATH, AAAH). You combine the two seemingly disparate knowledge bases extremely well. (I thought my BS Biology/English lit. Double major and later AA in Histology was bad) It is a bit sad that the two NEED to be combined, but I'm glad you are there to help bring these lost men home. They may have lost their lives, but you have given them back their identity. Thank you for all the work you, and the teams you are apart of, do. It frankly gives me the willies watching you guys handle all that old ordinance. Safety mechanisms be darned.
Ca-jo-nes. Of the titanium variety.
History may be written by the winners, but the truth is revealed by the archaeologists and forensic osteologists. ❤
Jesus being on the receiving end of an artillery barrage must of been like hell on earth!
You can see the results in some of my other videos "Exhumation of 25 Germans from a field hospital"
The rusted iron fragments from decades ago don’t tell the whole truth. It was extremely sobering as a new soldier in training back in the ‘80s to visit a fresh artillery impact area for the first time. Everywhere you looked there were small pieces of extremely sharp and jagged iron. How sharp? You could easily cut yourself by just handling them. Forget about keeping a piece as a souvenir because it would cut its way through a pocket just by its own weight. Just like a razor blade on every edge. And then to imagine thousands of these things flying around at supersonic speed - it made the reason for always being told to dig a “shell scrape” (a shallow hole to lay in) whenever we stopped moving very real.
That is quite interesting flying clay mores dam😂 I could see why people were so scared the enemy of course the civilian population probably didn’t have no idea
Most informative. Thanks for sharing your vast experience.
Driving bands have been made from copper, brass, lead, zinc, tin, and some late war German ones were steel. Im sure other soft metals have been used also.
Very educational! Thank you!
My uncle was in a driving band. from his place in the brass section, he could really catch the audience in a groove and send them all spinning.
he-he-he
@2:30 "a shell is a bullet over 2 cm."
Sorry to nit pick but...
A "shell" is just that. A hollow projectile that is filled with something, usually explosives.
A "big bullet" that is solid, is called "shot".
Tir d' artillerie vs. obus d'artillerie.
The dividing line between what is a "bullet" and what is a "shell" (ie; "cannon") is very arbitrary. Technically they are all just "projectiles".
I dont agree with you. There are armour piercing shells still refered to as shells, and not shot.
I have never heard of anyone speaking of a 20mm bullet, nor of a .50 caliber/12,7 mm shell.
Shells and bullets are indeed projectiles. So is a thrown stone. Not a very specific word. They are also all "things".
What is "tir d'artillerie" supposed to mean for you? Why "vs obus d'artillerie"? One mean artillery fire, the other means artillery shell.
Anyways, just nit picking back. In a world where medical doctors can not longer agree what the definition of a woman is, how are we supposed to agree on technical terms for various projectailes, with the various differences of English between Canada, Australia, the UK, etc, and the military vocabulary evolving all the time.
@@CrocodileTearDoctors didn’t agree on what “female” was for millennia. The simplest definition is “not male” because the default state for human genitalia is female. 2% of babies have what is termed “errors in sexual differentiation” (and that is the obvious ones).
Sex isn’t “simple” or “obvious”.
I will guarantee you went to school with someone who has been altered to “female” (by castration of the newborn and remodelled external genitalia) because they didn’t fit the box to be ticked by the paediatrician (a number of countries have now banned this practice after the underlying research was shown to be bogus and leading to elevated suicide rates).
A number of US states have banned the counselling of the victims of these surgeries under “gender confirmation counselling”.
Politicians make really bad doctors.
Jesus dude, you really think a guy who can identify artillery shells just by tiny shards of metal wouldn't know the proper definition of what a 'shell' is? There are certain basic things that don't need explaining because it's assumed the audience would already have a baseline understanding of the topic.
Very interesting as usual, Jean-Loup! Thanks for sharing this with us.
Great video! My father was very into American Civil War history and we found fragments from that conflict here in the US. Similarly ordinance and parrott rifles had driving bands and you could identify fragments and who shot what from the threads for the fuse or bands since mostly union troops had them.
Great technical information , and explained very well , thanks again for your efforts and education !!! ✔️😎
Thank you for you content. You have the best ww2 content on the internet. And godbless to all the soldiers who passed.
I take exception to your describing anything over 20mm as a 'shell.' A shell is called that because it contains something - typically an explosive filler. A solid projectile is more properly referred to as a 'shot.' A FSDS round from a tank is not a shell. A HEAT or HE round is.
Oh - and smoothbore guns have those bands also. The Driving band on a rifled gun has two functions: 1) to grip the rifling to make it spin and 2) to provide a gas tight seal so the propellant gasses don't leak out and reduce the speed of the projectile. And a smoothbore gun still needs these band to provide a gas seal.
As a fire control specialist I trained to organize fire missions based on analysis of impact of enemy indirect fire. I only had access to impact locations and it’s crazy how much information my section could interpolate JUST from knowing where and what time they landed. Thank you for the insight into what actually happens on the ground
What could you deduce from knowing when and where they landed?
@@CrocodileTear where they are coming from and where the ops are running to after firing. A good starting point is grouping the impacts based on the diameter of the crater. That narrows down the type of weapon that was used. Big hole=big gun and therefore big range. Smaller holes= smaller guns and of course smaller range. Time of impact gives you rates of fire which could indicate a faster or slower type of weapon or the number of launchers being used. Then you make circles respresrnting the possible firing points being used based on the range of the suspected firing piece. At that point geography will narrow down drastically the potential firing points. You can then send patrols to these locations and if the enemy impacts keep landing you know they’re somewhere else. Once you’ve narrowed it down to how ever many points you can attack with your tubes at once you can order preemptive strikes on locations you suspect will be used in the future to launch from. This is necessary because you might already know a few locations they fire from but you don’t know which one they will use the next time they fire. None of these decision are made by the operators in the command center but we can make suggestions to our fire direction officer who then takes them to someone else
Thanks for the explanations.
That was fascinating, thank you. It was a wonderful and informative presentation. The end of the video showed the frightening consequences of being under shell fire. That really brought it home.
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and to post a kind comment.
One of your best vids! Thank you!
This is absolutely the best explanation I've ever seen. Very well done!
Now I can see why other countries wanna ban certain kinds of weapons on the battlefield this one has a lot of collateral damage carnage that was the purpose of being designed anyway.
Very cool - I cannot wait to watch this. Shell fragments are fascinating stuff.
Rememer UXO isn´t safe. yes it hasn´t exploded. but that don´t say that. you messing around with it. isn´t going to be the thing that makes it explode.
Many thanks for posting - this was a very enlightening and informative video.
Thanks, never forget weapons are made to kill.
Image a lot of old estern front sections,used to war archeologists , now are in all way Battlefield...again
Heya,
I have been searching what happened to my great grandfather. He was MIA in 1942, never to be seen again. Data on him is very limited though. Could you maybe help me?
Drop me an email with his details
Stuff i never had any knowledge of, thank you CT for the enlightenment.
What's missing is the distinction between direct and indirect fire. A bullet is fired directly. Artillery comes from above. Ofc there are exceptions, machine guns may be used for indirect fire too. A MBT may be used for indirect fire, driving it on a ramp, to elevate the gun.
Both artillery and small arms fire can be used in direct or indirect fire.
Wow what an oddity. Gosh I hope my children grow up to become archaeological interpreters of shell fragments.
Better interpret fragments then fire them into live people.
It’s crazy to think about all the genius inventions that are made just to kill one another
A grim tale, although I confess that Speedo Man and, later, the stick men did make me laugh.
Great video..
As always you do such a good job making them..
I’m just amazed in how such a small little pebble sized piece of shrapnel can literally punch right through the side of a helmet and shatter the entire side of someone’s skull causing so much damage from such a small little tiny piece of metal..
Keep up the good work…👍
Thank you. I found a beautiful German shell in the Somme Battlefield with a brass fuse and the end cap of the shell still attached. It says: Dopp.Z.92
SP.16
It has a timing ring on it, still I. Great condition, I can spin it. Minimum damage. I always wondered how it could look so clean, a few gouges on the tip but nearly perfect.
Now I understand. It must have been set to times air burst.
I am glad you immediately put this video into practice
Thank you for implementing a humane note at the end of the video. We people need that. Not to live life as mindless creatures, like robots doing mathematical calculations and choices, but to stop and realize, its us, human beings, in a way brothers and sisters, all of us. Each of those soldiers you examined were men and women with personalities, families, hopes and aspirations. Each of those shell fragments you found, do deserve scientific admiration and research, but also deserve a sort of despise from us, a note of rejection and hate towards it, as it is a dark side of humanity we sometimes have to face.
Thanks for the informative video.
Is super quick fuze really necessary when you have penetrating delay fuze that works by deceleration? You could set delay to 0 and the shell would immediately explode when it hits the ground right?
I believe both fuzes could be set for superquick
0:21 Where did that dude get those awsome underpant type garment? I need to get myself one...
Merci beaucoup pour vos explications et schémas, c'est vraiment très intéressants à suivre, dommage que la traduction en français a un peu de mal avec certains mots mais le principal est là. À quand une vidéo explicative de la sorte en français ?🤔
Bonne continuation à vous 👍
Merci.
Je vous invite a regarder certaines de mes vidés en Francais (celle sur le résistant disparu Francis Tonner par exemple). Pour faire très bref, comme personne ne les regarde, j'ai arrêté de perdre mon temps à les faire.
We are SO GOOD at killing each other, we are humans.
I am very familiar with ballistics when dealing with rifle and handgun projectiles but I've found it very difficult to imagine a very tiny fragment of metal having enough mass and energy to pass through a helmet and still have sufficient energy to enter a skull pass through brain matter, exit the opposite side of the skull and finally exit the opposite side of the helmet. I realize this is not the path the vast majority of shrapnel takes but even just entering one side of a helmet to cause a fatal wound I find remarkable and your explanation is quite enlightening. Even a bullet with it's aerodynamic design has many forces working against it in an attempt to alter its course, slow its speed, and reduce it's energy to make it less effective for the job it was created to do so a tiny blob of steel really has an uphill battle . Seeing the chart of velocity versus distance was really quite helpful. Thanks
Tiny fragments wont go in and out. But larger ones can go clean through a head and helmet, as shown here. For the full details about that German helmet with the entrance and exit, watch this video: ruclips.net/video/C1nTdO30Pio/видео.html
Very very interesting I learned a lot thanks for the hard work.
This is very interesting. I just checked my recent finds and they now tell me much more of a story.
Great. Mission acomplished.
And beware of anything you dont recognize and know already.
Isnt there any risk of the munitions going off while you dig around? Handling grenades, shells etc
There is always a risk that we accept when participating in such activities.
Great video learned so much thanks!!
This is one of your best videos yet. While it may have technical issues for terms, ect., I found it very interesting! Keep up the great work.
Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it. I dont think this is the sort of them that interests the average viewer
Perhaps, if this type of work was carried out 20-30 years ago, many more fighters would have been found.. congratulations.
Awesome video!! Subscribed. I’ve always wondered how this worked. So question… is there a main cause in the fuse for when shells fail to detonate or become duds??
That probably depends of the every shell type.
I think a main reason for example in the mountains is shells hitting a rock with the side of their fuze, and then deviating, and never having the actual nose of the fuze hit the ground.
As shown in the video, these things are pretty much clockwork, and any of the numerous steps could malfunction.
How come they metal detect in their diapers? Asking for a friend 🙂 Great video and thanks for uploading it. Greetings from Arizona.
Those are bathing suits
Amazing work. Thank you!
This video is great. Goes in to detail in a very interresting way.
This is a great video! Thank you for taking the time to make it!
flat land + wind + inert artillery round fragments = looks like many of the training areas at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, US
Indeed, but it is the deadliest battlefield of all time, Stalingrad.
The friend with the camo hat carrying the mortars has been killed in Ukraine.
@@CrocodileTear My condolences! Yes, Stalingrad was one of the most historic battles studied by everyone, including the U.S. Army. .. btw, I agree that finds should be treated with care, including historic preservation and documentation. Great video!
You can see the rest of the Stalingrad footage in my video "The Stalingrad Digging camp"
One question I have... how does turning the ring on the American delay fuse actually result in the fuse burning faster or slower?
The speed the powder train burns at remains the same, but when the fuze is set roratiting the disk, the powder train has to burn for a longer distance before reaching the hole connecting it to the next step. See the illustration at 20:10
Come here by random accident but ended up staying for the whole thing 😂. Really interesting!
Thanks. You should watch some more, like "Sawbones 1945"
Wow.. that's a lot to take in during the first minute...
seems as though one could even identify the exact equipment that fired a shell if they had it available for investigation.
By the way, it is "fuse" not "fuze"
As you know there are variations of English. I invite you to see the wikipedia page entitled "fuZe":
"Some professional publications about explosives and munitions distinguish the "fuse" and "fuze" spelling.[5][6] The UK Ministry of Defence states (emphasis in original):
Fuse: Cord or tube for the transmission of flame or explosion usually consisting of cord or rope with gunpowder or high explosive spun into it. (The spelling fuze may also be met for this term, but fuse is the preferred spelling in this context.)[7]
Fuze: A device with explosive components designed to initiate a main charge. (The spelling fuse may also be met for this term, but fuze is the preferred spelling in this context.)[8]"
When you are handling ordinance from WW2, are you not worried about these things exploding as you are handling them?
Not really
this is pretty fascinating.
ive got a couple of letter opener trench art made from fired driving bands.
Thanks always wondered how the fuse worked. Must have cost a lot to make those complex fuses..
They are basically clockwork
i wonder how those new fuses with the gryo electric gnerator/fins that are semi guided work.. since in a lot of the animations the spinning fins can sometimes stop the spinning of the body of the fuse... probably uses some other safety mechanism for the main fuse? or has none?
maybe thats why they come with that weird square plastic case that has to be removed after wrenching it down and before firing
another reason why fragments loose energy so quickly is theyre usually made of less dense metal like steal (compared to lead) and also drag increases with the cube of velocity.
I dont know anything about modern munitions. If there are fins, then no gyroscopical spining is needed.
There are all sorts of other safety mechanisms that can be used, particularly now with electronics, etc.
You are right that the fact the fragments are not made of lead is also a reason why they lose speed faster.
People often think that a small rock falls as fast as a big one because of what they learn at school, but they forget that this is wrong when there is an atmosphere.
I hope someday you'll be investigating the use of sub-munitions bombs by the Ukrainian army on the civilians in Donetsk.
That's pretty easy to investigate since the culprits have admitted using them. Not sure The Russians admitted to the use of flechette rounds though?