Trench art brass ashtray with Japanese Zero: Private James Green, 42 Battalion

Place Oceania: New Guinea1, Mubo Salamaua Area, Salamaua
Accession Number REL/00350
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Trench Art
Physical description Brass, Solder
Maker Green, James
Place made New Guinea1: Mubo Salamaua Area, Salamaua
Date made 1943
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Source credit to This item has been digitised with funding provided by Commonwealth Government.
Description

Ashtray made from a cut down Australian 2 pounder shell case, marked on the base 1942, featuring three equidistant half circles filed out from the brass. A complete (but fired) bullet is soldered into the centre of the shellcase, and forms a support for a sheet brass and cartridge model that James Green identified as a Japanese Zero fighter plane. The fighter is made from a Japanese 6.5 x 51 semi-rimmed round which forms the fuselage, while wings, tail, tailplane and cockpit are made from sheet brass and soldered on and filed. There is evidence of newer solder around the tail. There is a single hole in each wingtip and through the tail. The fillet between the wing and the fuselage has been filled with solder and filed. The end of the supporting bullet in the ashtray fits into a hole in the underwing of the Zero. The scale is approximately 1:80.

History / Summary

Trench art ashtray and aeroplane made by James Green, a resident of Toowoomba, Queensland, born on 2 April 1921 who enlisted on 16 October 1941. He served in New Guinea under service number Q36047 with 42 Battalion. Of the making of this ashtray he noted:

"We made and did a little work on each piece in our spare time, mostly at night after mess; scrouge a file and sand or emery paper. I did have an American P-38 Lighting, but they are a magnet for kids and it ended up broken or lost, propellors pulled off. I had them all in pieces in a dilly bag and soldered them together after the war. The one enclosed represents a Japanese Zero (minus prop) The base is an Australian 2 pounder shell case, and the stem is an American bullet and case." This has since been identified as a Japanese round (see description).

The general timescale for this ashtray was around the time 42 Battalion occupied Salamaua.

James Green's father - also known as James Green - was an Irishman who served with the AIF. Pre war, he also served with the British Navy for 3 years and a year with the Connaught Rangers.