Evening star., 1946-08-02

shells (this) was lackinglv entirely.
1t was the consensus of the entire
company that none Of us would care
to fire any of the shells that passed
through our hands without first
attaching a 500-yard lanyard and
then getting into deep hole before
touching one off,
Entire Crew Killed.
The Fort Bragg incident involving
defective shells was described in
the following excerpt:
In the late part of the summer
of 1943 the Field Artillery Board
was conducting tests with the AZ
inch chemical motor at Fort Bragg.
During the course of one of the tests
a muzzle burst occurred which
killed or seriously wounded the
entire gun crew Reports Ito
the Office Of the Chief of Chemical
Warfare Service and later by the
Field Artillery BoardD show the lot
number of the defective round and
from that information the manu-
facturer can be ascertained.
Army regulations require that
ammunition be stored and issued
by lot numbers; that report giving
lot number be made of all accidents
involving defective ammunition, and
the faulty rounds be impounded.
From this information 1t should not
be difficult to find out who manu-
factured the rounds which caused
muzzle bursts. It might also be of
interest to find out why certain
lot numbers were impounded from
time to time on instructions from
the chief, Chemical Warfare Serv-
ice, during the period 1942-1946.'
More than 5000 rounds of de-
fective 42-inch ammunition were
collected in Italy. shipped to Leg
horn and reworked by the I'd Chem
ical Maintenance Company. accord
ing to letter from an ex-service-
man in Philadelphia.
Has Lot Numbers.
Explaining that his chemical NOR
tar battalion mad quite a bit of
defective 4.2-incn ammunition" he
stated:
I'VE have in my possession the lot
numbers of this faulty ammunition
and If 1t is Of any value in trac-
ing the manufacturers of this am
munition I will gladly forward it
to you.
Il also know that one gun crew
OF the 84th Chemical Mortar Bat
talon, also In Italy, was wiped out
by this defective ammunition. I can
testify that the efficiency of the two
battalions was impaired because we
had to fire our remaining ammuni-
ton by lanyard because we were
not too sure that some of that
wasn't bad"
Another veteran who was sta
toned near Filigano, Italy, informed
the committee he knew of several
premature explosions which oc-
CURED between November. 1943, and
January, 1945, in Italy. The Novem-
ber explosion siiled two men, seri-
ously injured three others and
caused five minor casualties, he
declared
Restrictions on Firing.
He reported that a similar ex-
plosion near Bastogne on or about
January Is, 1945, killed three men
and seriously wounded two.
From March, 1945, on, restric-
tions were put on as far as firing
AZ HE shells were concerned" he
notified the committee. mo re-
striction on WP shells, however, in
some cases when rapid fire was ab-
necessary these orders were
ignored. 1t was impossible to tell
the exact lot number of the shells
which exploded as there were too
many numbered lots to check all of
them accurately g ." The soldier
said he saw many premature ex-
plosions in good weather and bad"
The letter from the ex-serviceman
who was in the Solomons with the
37th Division IN 1914 related he
was within 35 yards of a chemical
mortar battalion battery when a
shell exploded "just as it cleared
the muzzle."
This, OF course. completely un-
nerved the rest of the battery, so
they ceased firing for the night.
In the morning. officers told them
it was a Jap shell, not a faulty
shell. The reason for this was to
get the men to go back to their
guns with some confidence I know
OF four men who died because of
the fau1ty she'll :"