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WW1 37mm Hotchkiss Ordinance


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I have been asked questions regarding the 37mm in WW1, so I will drop some information here to help explain the types and their usage. The US forces in WW1 mainly used French and British weapons as their military was not prepared for war, however before the US entered the war, many US factories were making weapons, guns and munitions for the Allies. The 37mm Hotchkiss gun got its start during the 1870s when Benjamin B Hotchkiss, an American inventor was supervising the manufacture of munitions for the French during the Franco-Prussian war. There was a lack of effectiveness with the current Mitrailleuse gun and began designing a replacement.

There was a major factor that impacted his design, and that was the Congress of St. Petersburg (1868), which prevented European nations from the use of exploding ammunition during war, in which the weight of the projectile was less than 400 grams. So, Hotchkiss designed a round that was 455 grams and 37mm in caliber. His invention, the rotating canon was introduced in 1871, too late for the war, however over the next few years he refined the design and it was approved for use in 1875, and it was adopted by several nations. Its main roles at the time were for field use and for arming smaller naval vessels such as torpedo boats. Hotchkiss developed larger calibers for naval use as armor thickness increased, and a 40mm gun was developed for fortress defense, called the Flanking gun, these were used in WW1 and some even into WW2. As technology advanced, with warship design and with weapons, the rotating barrel design was replaced with a single barreled-quick firing type instead. 

Below is what is called the common type shell, which was made of cast iron and had a brass band around the base of the projectile to aid in flight stabilization by gripping the lands of the barrel upon firing. This projectile was made to explode upon impact and typically made about 15-20 fragmentation shards. Up until the later 1800's the brass casings were spiraled to prevent jams in the gun breech, however this was corrected with advancements in metallurgy in which stronger stamped single piece brass casings could be made, these are the types used in WW1 onwards. 2 types of fuses were used with these projectiles, the Hotchkiss type and the Desmarest, and they both look very similar in design. The Hotchkiss type fuse was designed for land use and was typically more reliable. The common type shells are typically the most often encountered types seen today. Sometimes the brass casing may have trench art type engraving. Sometimes the brass casing may have later WW2 dates on them as well. Typically the brass casing used in WW1 should have marking such as the ones in the picture below.

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Below is the perhaps the second most encountered 37mm shell from WW1, the steel shot type. These were originally designed to hit the thin armor on torpedo boats and the steel core was hardened to penetrate up to 35mm of steel plating. However, as stated earlier, the Navies were constantly upgrading their weapons, armor and ships, this round became less effective. It did find use in penetrating concrete machine gun emplacements in WW1 as well as sniper armor shields. 

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Here is an example of the 40mm flanking gun projectile, which had a thin brass casing that held 24 lead balls weighing 32 grams each. Typically the brass shot casing sits lower in the brass casing base, but it is fragile and don't want to risk any damage. These shells do not come up for sale very often. 

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Here are some US made shell casings for the 37mm. They are almost the same in appearance to the French made types, however towards the top of the brass casing, there are 3 indentations that help hold the projectile in place. These indentations are not on the French casings as seen in the last picture. Additionally, the base of the shells are marked quite differently.

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US forces utilized French made shells and equipment when operating the Canon d'Infanterie de 37 modèle 1916 TRP, these guns saw field use and were used in the FT-17 light tanks, and in some instances, aircraft. The US stored the rounds for field use into wooden crates which had a cloth bandolier strap in which 16 rounds could be held. The photo below illustrates this. The crate below is an original, however the leather carrying strap is a replacement. The 16 inert rounds are mainly the common type with a few steel shot types. In practice a gun in field service had a limber that held 14 of these crates for a total of 224 rounds. 

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You can see the crate and the cloth bandolier just under the loaders hand. Most likely a training scenario as the crew are all officers.

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WW1 German 37mm shells were very similar in appearance to the other nations shells. However they are typically harder to find. Note the difference in the brass casings.

Image source, internet.

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pre-war markings on base of brass casing.

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war time example of markings

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Although considered obsolete by WW1, the rotating barreled 37 mm gun was pressed into service.

1st Image is  of a captured 37mm rotating barrel gun from Verdun. 2nd image is of a 37mm being used in an anti-aircraft role. 

image source, internet

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  • 1 year later...

Wow! Great, accurate write up! Great photos as well.  Is the canvas belt for the 32 round box yours?  I’m so jealous-I only have a box, not the belt.

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Hello Mdot, yes the box and canvas belt are mine, they do pop up from time to time. 

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Worcester Pressed Steel Company, US Based Company

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  • 1 month later...

I recently inherited a 37mm shell apparently brought back by my paternal grandfather who served with the AEF. It does not seem to match the photos above. It does have French manufacturer markings on bottom of the casing but the actual shell seems almost a sold slug with  a possible seam indicating a two-piece construction some 1.25" from the tip. The tip shows a slot for inserting what I would think is a screwdriver and on opposite sides there are indentations that look suitable of some kind of pliers. It has the twin rifling bands as shown in the first photos above.

And I can't determine how to add photos to this message. Apologies for my ignorance.

Any thoughts on what I have?

Thanks,

Jim Thomas

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Hi Jim, you can post photos now, as you are a member.  

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Hello Jim, welcome to the Forum. Thank you for posting images of your shell. You do indeed have a WW1 era French shell, the casing is well marked, on the projectile, it is also French made. These types are not as commonly seen as the ones I have posted. Below are images from the internet showing similar ordnance. 

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Any chance of this having a charge in the shell? Or is this probably just a solid shot round? I am profoundly ignorant in these matters.

And thanks for finding the other photos.

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Hello Jim, if unsure you should always treat ordnance as live. The casing has been fired, so no issue there. Typically, most solid shot projectiles that I have seen (like the ones I have posted) have an opening at the rear of the projectile for a plug. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I did manage to find a similar shell to the one in Jim's posting. The projectile comes apart easily enough. 

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