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During a routine inspection in 2026, museum staff uncovered a shocking secret hidden inside a WWII Panzer III tank that had gone unnoticed for more than 80 years. Beneath an internal floor panel was a 7.92×57mm Mauser round, the same ammunition used by the German MG 34 machine gun mounted on the legendary armored vehicle. The discovery stunned experts because the aging bullet was potentially dangerous and had to be carefully deactivated before being added to the collection. This rare Panzer III, one of only two surviving examples still running, carries a mysterious history dating back to the North African campaign and the Battle of Alam el Halfa in 1942.
So, a live round was rolling around under the floorboards for 84 years, and the lack of men in the UK caused a panic?
Potentially dangerous?
Maybe if you tried to swallow it. It's not like it's an HE round where the explosive's stabilizers have been slowly breaking down leaving something behind that makes nitroglycerine seem easy to juggle.
I love the line about carefully deactivating it.
In America a quick poll would have been taken among the workers to see who had a 98k and they'd have shot that round to see how badly the powder had degraded.
"Historian Ian Hudson said he could not definitely say the round was a wartime artefact but “it’s certainly very likely”."
Are you fucking shitting me, Ian?
A fucking historian doesn't know to look at the headstamp?
I am ever more convinced that we should have helped the Germans in 1918.
I can see them worried if it was a 5.0cm cartridge or even a 3.7cm cartridge, but a bog-standard 7.92mm rifle cartridge? Still, the powder in the German cannon ammo is relatively stable over long periods of time. Only the fuses on HE would be a real problem.
ReplyDeleteAutomatic suspension of Man Card, if they had them.
Now, ImpJap stuff, including their small arms ammunition? A lot of it, especially the cannon stuff, does degrade and get significantly more volatile over time, especially when exposed to salt water.
I've fired off tens of thousands of rounds of military surplus ammo that was 50+ years old and I've never been harmed doing so. Worst I've run into was a few duds and the occasional split case. Once or twice I got a face full of hot powder gas from a split case. Mostly in 1893 Turk Mausers firing the cheapest Yugoslavian 8mm surplus ammo. Never any real injury. And I've literally shot 10s of thousands of round of military surplus 8mm Mauser ammo... Turk, Yugo, Bulgarian, whatever the cheapest stuff I could find was.
Delete-swj
British hoplophobia alternately amuses and disgusts me. A lot of my friends love Terry Pratchett's stories, but I got turned off to them when he had a "Gonne" appear on Discworld and drive everybody who held it into a killing-everybody frenzy. If Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson appeared in modern London, the fact that they were packing revolvers would drive people mad with terror.
ReplyDeleteGood Omens is the limit of my experience of Pratchett.
DeleteI'm there with you on the British hopolophobia. When did they turn into such limp wristed pussy boys? And yes, I AM taunting them. I remember Sherlock Holmes if I recall packing a Webley. The Brits are rivaling the French for being cowardly. So there! Jab-jab.
Delete-swj
Hopolaphobia amongst the pussy British lameos. OOooooohhhhh SCARY.... A LIVE ROUND.... It is going to jump out and KILL SOMEONE!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! PANIC!!!!
ReplyDeleteGeez, they all need to turn in their man cards over there. F-ing wimps.
I've got litereally THOUSANDS of rounds of similar capabiility to an 8mm Mauser, including... at least hundreds of actual 8mm Mause rounds... just LAYING around the house... And I don't feel scared at all. Why am I not at all intimidated by this but the pansy ass Brits find it so scary?
-swj