Turkish shell nose fuze : Gallipoli

The front section of a nose fuze used to detonate a Turkish artillery projectile. The conical shaped fuze component is 81 mm long and consists of the brass nose section set above four brass rings. The third ring from the nose section has the time setting scale numbered (in Arabic numerals) from 0 to 88. This brass assembly is locked into a steel base ring. The brass nose has two rows of writing in Arabic cscript. The base ring has the number '3817' stamped into it. At its base it has a 80 mm diameter artillery shell nose insert thread.

This Turkish fuze was collected at Gallipoli in 1919 by members of the Australian War Records Section (AWRS) or the Australian Historical Mission (AHM).

The small party of AWRS staff, led by Lieutenant William Hopkin James, worked on Gallipoli between December 1918 and March 1919, taking photographs and collecting items for the national collection. The AHM, led by Official Historian C E W Bean, visited Gallipoli from February to March 1919 to collect items for the nation, to record the area through artworks and photographs, and to explore the battlefields to answer some of the 'riddles of Anzac' for the Australian official history of the war.