Original Item: Only One Available. Totally inert and demilitarized according to BATF guidelines with all propellant removed a deactivated primer. This artillery round cannot be converted to an explosive device and is not available for export.

This is a very nice example of a U.S. WWII era 75mm Field Gun brass shell casing, which has been fitted with a heavy custom machined steel inert shell. It looks to have been spun on a lathe from a single piece of steel, and had a brass obturating ring fitted on it, and then was fitted into the shell casing. The casing has faded paint markings on the side, and the bottom still has the original proofs and issue marks:

AM. LOT
75mm. F.G.
LOT 1243-19-G.&D.

The round measures about 26 inches in over all length. A wonderful example ready for display!

75mm Field Gun M1897 of WWI & WWII
The 75 mm Field Gun M1897 on M2 Carriage was a field gun and anti-tank gun which was used by the US Army during the interwar period and World War II. Originally of French design, the Canon de 75 modèle 1897 was supplied to the United States in large numbers and became the standard field gun for the US Army during World War I. The mle 1897 was a revolutionary breech-loading artillery piece that combined a Nordenfelt eccentric screw breech, fixed "quickfire" ammunition, and a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism. The combination of fixed ammunition, recoil mechanism, and simple breech made the mle 1897 one of the fastest-firing and most accurate field guns of its era. It had a box trail carriage with a gun shield, and two wooden-spoked steel-rimmed wheels on an unsprung axle, designed for horse traction. In US service the mle 1897 was given the designation 75 mm Gun M1897.[3] There were 480 American 75 mm field gun batteries (over 1,900 guns) on the battlefields of France in November 1918. American industry began building the mle 1897 in the spring of 1918, but only 143 American-built guns had been shipped to France by 11 November 1918, and most American batteries used French-built 75s.

During the interwar period, as most countries had large stocks of the 75mm artillery, without an active conflict there was little reason for an updates. They knew that the 75mm was not very effective for the intended point bombardment of entrenched enemies, but they were kept in service throughout the interwar period. The U.S. Army made updates to the carriages and to the guns themselves, which by the outbreak of WWII had reached the M1897A4 75mm Field Gun on the M2A3 carriage.

The 75mm guns were already known to be insufficient, and by 1941 were being replaced by the 105 mm M2 Howitzer within Field Artillery Units. However the 75mm Field Gun proved to be quite effective in an anti-tank role. M1897s were removed from their towed carriages and installed on the half-track M3 Gun Motor Carriage (GMC). They were used in this role until the late war improvements of German armor.