Trench Art Shell Mystery, W. Manzke, Hamburg, ?

You are correct, here’s a little amplifying info. The big end of the projectile has a copper-alloy “rotating band” around it, which sticks out from the steel body. The band is critical to gun accuracy but more important to the troops, a distorted band might keep them from being able to load the projectile all the way into the gun. So they reverse every other projectile on the ramp to protect that band.

 

Wow Ms. Bakers, you found some super info there, and this is the 2nd one you’ve done that for! I am impressed beyond words! Unbelievable!

 

Speechless (very rare condition for me!)

 

Shamefully embarrassed by your effusive praise, Spring. But so happy I could find this for you.

 

I’m still interested in the significance of “Hurley.” Another possibility that crossed my mind is that Hurley may have been the “trench artist” who did the design and engraving. I can’t seem to come up with a direct connection between William Manzke and a Hurley-named place. The Hurley-the-photographer association is very tenuous.

 

The Hurley photography is more tenuous than you thought. Apparently he was known for superimposed two or more photos, in order to give a more graphic depiction of war.

 

Website with photos and info for WW1 trench art.... http://trenchartofww1.co.uk/men_making_trench_art_59.html

 

That troop passenger list file is almost 800 pages long. I checked all the names on about 30 pages around the one on which Manzke's name appears, but found no Hurley. Also checked the location of the Camp Mills to which all of them were going next. Not even close to Ulster County. It's in Nassau County (Long Island) near the location of Adelphi College.

 

That's a great site and some beautiful examples!

 

Thanks. This video on that site, of a craftsman making trench art, to show how it was done, is impressive. I never had the time/patience to do it that way so I acid-etched some pieces, way quicker. I could put the design mask on a shell in maybe 20 min, etch it in acid for 20 min., wash, dry, and put a clear coating on it, all within an hour. The craftsman way looks like it takes days.

The craftsman video:

 

Thanks for trying, maybe the Hurley and the Hamburg explanations will come out in time, I’ve got more info than I expected and might post another piece soon.

 

Good video,always wondered what was used inside the shell for the chasing work,a lot of them look like repoussee but the are chased.The wriggle engraving at the end he was removing metal which I have never seen before,usually no metal is removed. Found another vid below your posted on YouTube with hammer and chisel engraving.

 

Hurley was the ammo bearer dog

 

I’ve convinced myself that “Hurley” was the artist. His name is on a banner on the very back of the piece. However I’m pretty certain Hurley wasn’t more than an amateur artist or craftsman, and was not any of several famous American artists with that last name, so we may never know exactly who “Hurley” was.

But I’m still hopeful that I’ll discover the background of the text regarding Nr. 27 or Nr. 91 Stresowstrasse in Hamburg, Germany. Or will one of you wonderful, brilliant, generous forum members discover it for me?

 

For you interpretation Springfield
https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/16101/Air-Raid-Shelter-Stresowstra%DFe.htm

 

Thanks, that shelter’s on same street, built sometime after 1939. I’m guessing William Manzke’s association with or residence in Hamburg preceded WWII, maybe I’ll try and find city directories for that period, or maybe more easily, find descendants and ask them.

 

Just to be clear, I don’t quite understand the spelling of that.

 

Thx, if you mean the spelling of what we English-speakers spell as “Stresowstrasse,” German language has a character we pronounce “s-tset” that looks like a Greek Beta. That will mess up some search engines and printouts.

“Street” = Strasse in English/German, but

in German:
Straße

 

Here is another Hurley. From Wikipedia:
"Hurley is a city in Turner County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 415 at the 2010 census."