Flare 1942

[Archéavion]

On a rocket found at the scene of a crash of a FW190, there are these entries:

S 5 B
a j Juli 1942

The date is the date of manufacture or the end user ??

Thank you

[Archéavion]

Hello,
Not much response!

[ClinA-78]

Hello Archéavion,

What do you call a 'rocket'? Better to post a picture.

If it is a 21cm 'Bordrakete'... you are in big trouble or is it a flare cartridge?

Sioux later

Best regards

ClinA-78

[Andy Saunders]

Most of the flare gun cartridges I have seen have a "use by" date stamped on them in black ink on the cartridge side. Probably something like Bis Jul 1942

[Kaczmarek]

Hello,

the manufacturer code "aj" stands for Sörensen & Köster Neumünster. It is a flare cartridge I think in this case Juli 1942 is the end of use date.

Kaczmarek

[Archéavion]

Hi,
Thank you for Cline, Andy and Kaczmarek,

The cartridge distress has a length of 100mm, 28mm and 30mm diameter for the base with an inscription cbl
The body is aluminum

The pilots wore these rockets attached to their boots.
The excavation site of this device is finished, I have only this date to locate the crash.
These cartridges were valid for how long?

Thank you for your help

[Andy Saunders]

That was a use-by date, although I have no idea how carefully that was adhered to. In theory, you could say that your crash must pre-date the date on the cartridge although, in practice, I don't know how much attention was paid to the date by which it should be used. I wouldn't think you could rely upon this as a definitie pointer.

By the way, I have one from an October 1940 Me 109 crash and the use-by date is June 1944. Therefore, there must have been at least four years from manufacture to its use-by date. I just add that for what its worth!

[hanshauprich]

Is the flare complett? Is the rim unmarked or marked with small teeths? Remember, that the canopy from an Fw 190 open (eject) in an emergency with an socalled "Treibkartusche" This items looks like an standard flarepistol cartrige in Caliber 4 but has an big bang when fired!!! (When fired in an flarepistol, you have had an flarepistol and missed a few fingers!) If the normal flare cartrige stored in dry place,you can fire them years ather that use-by-date. In my K-9 Unit we used this old flares during night-training. The oldest where more then 10 years over the use-by-date.

[ClinA-78]

Hello,

Pardon me to digress a little bit from the initial topic.

To Archéavion: Perhaps you can give a precise location for your crash; of course, if you are interested to identify it?

To Hans: Could you post a picture of the "treibkartusche" please? It is hard to find info's about that item (I have read about 2cm shell case device).
In fact, I have found on a German fighter crashsite, an aluminium cartridge, looking very similar to a flare cartridge (same width, metal, 'cap fuse') but it is shorter (+/-60mm, not cut by crash) and 'rimless'. No marking upon. Could it be a treibkartusche, or a non-WW2 flare cartridge or... anything else???

Best regards

ClinA-78

PS : sorry problem with Pic attachment

[Andy Saunders]

When you describe it as "rimless" I wonder if you are describing the inner case or cylinder which slides into the parachute flare cartridge? (Falschirmleuchtpatrone) It will have a hole at its base - from memory with a brass or copper inserted ring. It is (just) slightly smaller in diameter than the actual cartridge to enable it to slide inside and shorter than the overall length. It will have no markings. Also, there were two lengths of flare pistol cartridge. I don't have my examples to hand to measure, unfortunately.