Fragment of a High Explosive German shell : Courtney's Post, Gallipoli

Fragment from the bottom section of a German High Explosive (HE) shell with the wall of the casing measuring 64mm thick. A grooved and ridged section on the outer shell shows where the copper driving band would have been located (now absent).

This shell fragment was collected by members of the Australian War Records Section (AWRS) at Courtney's Post on 10 January 1919. A 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.

Courtney's Post was the centre post of three - Quinn's, Courtney's and Steele's - that occupied precarious, but critical, positions along the lip of Monash Valley, in the heights above ANZAC Cove. Monash Valley ran right into the heart of the ANZAC position and, as Shrapnel Valley, continued on down to the beach at ANZAC Cove. The post was named after Lieutenant Colonel Richard Courtney, commander of the 14th Battalion, which had occupied the position on 27 April 1915. The position had been originally captured by men of the 11th Battalion on the morning of 25 April.

At the time it was found, this shell fragment was believed to have been fired by the German cruiser, SMS 'Goeben', but the AWRS later thought it was more likely to have been fired by the Turkish battleship, 'Torgat Reiss'.