M302 60MM Smoke, Willie Pete

[917601]

New addition I have been trying to find for some time. An M302 Smoke with the early Bakelite plastic fuze. White phosphorus rounds are extremely hard to find, especially ones that have not had a hole punched through the body when demilled ( which of course destroys the paint). Believed to be WW2 era as some like this are found not filled having failed dimensional checks and were given to factory employees, bond drives, etc. confirmed as the only body marking is a number "030", lacking the few other inspection stamps, body lot numbers and number designation.

[robinb]

Very nice!

[Charlie Flick]

Now that's cool. A very difficult to find 60MM round.

 

Charlie

[ordnance]

Nice round and likely a line reject as you suggest. It's identical to my example which came from a friend who's father was an ordnance inspector during WWII.

[917601]

Nice round and likely a line reject as you suggest. It's identical to my example which came from a friend who's father was an ordnance inspector during WWII.

Thank you for mentioning your example, I guess being a plant inspector had it's benefits way back when. If it was not for the employees, much of the WW2 ordnance found today would be not be around. I acquired this one a few years back, a 90MM M71 HE, the head case totally unmarked, but the M71 HE projectile factory crimped and stamped complete, dated 1943. A faint "RJ..T" is stamped center of the projectile, I assume it is a reject. I purchased it from a Joliet Arsenal workers son who said his father had brought quite a few pieces home.

[917601]

A picture of the Joliet Arsenal 90mm line, they were in operation thru the 70's I believe.This picture must be Korean War era as that is when they went from brass cases to laquered steel cases.

[917601]

The plant explosion:

"Plant explosion.

Though both plants were designed with safety as a primary concern,[3] at 2:45 a.m. on June 5, 1942, a large explosion on the assembly line at the Elwood facility resulted in 48 dead or missing and was felt as far as Waukegan, Illinois, over 60 miles (97 km) north.[5] Assembly Lines were located in separate buildings which were separated by substantial distances limiting major damage to the facility as a whole.

 

From a United Press newspaper article written at the time, "Explosion shattered buildings of one of the units of the $30,000,000 Elwood Ordnance plant gave up the bodies of 21 workers Friday. Army officials said 36 more were missing from the blast that could be felt for a radius of 100 miles. Another 41 were injured, five of them critically, from the explosion that leveled a building.... Not one of the 68 men inside the shipping unit when the blast occurred escaped death or injury."

 

"The explosion put one of the 12 production units out of action temporarily, but operations continued in the others."[6]

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Army_Ammunition_Plant

[ccyooper]

Very nice and interesting read on the plant explosion.