Can someone identify this case?

[Dianaa]

Thanks Adrian

There is soo many things to learn when you've never studied stuff before the Korean War era and Land Rover 80".

[motto]

What a box was used for not only depends on its dimensions but on its internal partitioning or mount brackets if any. The one on the front of the Jeep appears to be externally similar to what was fitted out here for transporting 25pdr shell cases- eight to a box.

David

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Dianaa

Thanks Adrian

There is soo many things to learn when you've never studied stuff before the Korean War era and Land Rover 80".

Diana,

Take a look at this link, to confirm what Adrian has posted, pressings and general size about right ;
http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/27495-B.166

regards, Richard

[Mike Cecil]

Pretty sure it is not a 25-pdr cartridge box: no circular impressions in the lid (one per cart case - 8 impressions), also appears too tall and not quite wide enough. Suggest its PIAT, as per a previous post.

Mike C

[motto]

You're right Mike. I thought of the lid difference later. Dimensions are a little harder to ascertain from a photo.

I removed all the lids and partitions from the hundred or so boxes I bought from Plums in Benalla many years ago for $2 each. I used them on their side for shelving leaving only a couple of the best ones intact. I guess that makes me some sort of a vandal.

David

[Mike Cecil]

Ah, yes, Dave, we are all responsible for those sort of acts! I remember the relative dimensions of the PIAT to 25-pdr boxes well because by the time I got to Plumies in Benalla and Albury, I couldn't get enough of all the same sized boxes, and had to settle for a mix of the two sizes, plus the smaller 25-pdr cartridge boxes. Apparently, someone in a Chev modified conventional had pretty much cleaned them out!!!

Having the mix of sizes as storage was a pain: I didn't have enough of any one type to make up shelves, so settled for open Handy Angle shelving. Those were the days. Now I just have to store paper ..... but the US has different sized paper and folders! Even the paper punch has a different spacing. Just can't win....

Mike C

[motto]

That Chev is now in England. Having driven it there from Istanbul in '09 I sold it before coming home.

Back when I purchased those 100 ammo boxes I went through a pile of perhaps four times that number to get good ones as they had been stacked outside for some time and the rain had got to them. Some were full of water, some were rotted through already.

It was around that time that a mate and I bought twenty or so de-milled PIATs from Plum and Crettins in Wodonga for 50 cents each. The army had thoughtfully dropped off the parts removed in the same load of scrap so it was an easy matter to recommission a number of them.

I was amazed when I saw a mock up of a PIAT in the Pegasus Bridge museum in Normandy with a note saying that a real one was unobtainable. The next one I saw was being unloaded from the boot of a re-enactors vehicle at the Bovington Tank Fest. Chatting with the bloke he told me that they are worth a horrendous amount of money. I don't have a single one left. Easy come easy go.

You're no doubt aware Mike that the Australian Army officially referred to that weapon as PITA, Projector Infantry Tank Attack. A not so subtle psychological switch around that appears at least in the training manual of which my mate has a copy.

David

[Dianaa]

So it seems that I'll neither get the Larkspur battery boxes nor the PIAT/PITA boxes either.

Will have to keep looking, for something suitable, or use unboxed lead/acid batteries.

Diana