Ammunition box for M1 anti-tank mines and M1A1 fuzes

Nailed rectangular wooden crate with a hinged lid. The long sides are made from single planks of 20 mm thick wood. There are a pair of zinc-aluminium alloy hinges and a centrally-mounted twist elbow clamp lock screwed to the lid, each with some traces of black paint. There are two angled cut-outs and matching screw-holes evident on the front face, indicating the box has been re-used on a number of occasions and the current lock has been re-sited. All external faces have been roughly varnished. There are ten vertical slots cut into the internal front and rear faces, which can locate internal dividing boards. There are four of these present, three of masonite and one of the same wood that the box is constructed from. This divider also exhibits a bevelled top-edge. Pasted to the inside of the lid are the remnants of a paper 'Certificate of Merit, Second Class' issued by St Paul's Church Lithgow to Noel Thomas 'for Attendance and Efficiency' for 1948-1949. The orientation of the certificate suggests that this box has been recycled as a vertical filing cabinet.

There are numerous heat-impressed markings on all sides and lid of the box. On the lid: 'EXPLOSIVE / DETONATING FUZES / HANDLE CAREFULLY'. On the front: '5 MINES / ANTI-TANK M1 / 5 -- FUZES M1A1' 'PACKED 5-42' 'MINE LOT / 6935 - 43' '5 FUZES / LOT / 22381-27'. On the rear: 'FROM - ELWOOD ORDNANCE PLANT / JOLIET. ILLINOIS. TO - / FOR / B.S.C. 2109 BEST' '70 LBS / 1.45 CU. FT.' Both sides repeat the Mine and Fuze title and serials; one side bears a small graphic of a round smoking bomb; and there are traces of a yellow painted band across each side. There is a small mark - 'DM' - impressed into the base, which likely relates to Des Moines county, where Elwood is located.

This box was used to store and transport American M1 anti-tank pressure-operated mines. Essentially a circular steel case topped by a cruciform pressure plate (called a 'spider'), and incorporating a carrying handle, the M1 mine was stored upright, five to a box, packed with a sliding wooden divider between each. The sixth compartment, usually at the far right, held a sliding wooden former to which five fuzes were attached. The compartment dividers were designed to be removed and used as a base for the mine in soft soil.

American manuals confirm that the box lid was originally fitted with a pair of latches and that this example has been altered.

The American Army was late in its development of mines as a tactical tool, lagging well behind German and even Japanese thinking, and M1 production wasn't commenced until October 1940, with deployment starting in 1941. It was declared obsolete and withdrawn from use by 1943. The Elwood Ordnance Plant commenced production in July 1941 (among the first large new ammunition factories completed in a rush in response to the growing inevitability of war) and specialised in the filling and loading of artillery shells, bombs and mines.

The mines were normally painted in green with a yellow band, with stencilled marking on the top. Each mine weighed 4.9 kilograms and contained 2.75 kilograms of TNT, and required between 120 and 250 kg of pressure to activate.

This box, along with REL44949, were donated together; the certificate of merit inside the lid confirms an association with Lithgow. Both boxes appear to have been used after they were disposed of by the army as vertical filing cabinets, with the dividers modified into trays.