A Pair of Very Rare Boer War `Pom Pom` Shells

A Rare Pair of Boer War 'Pom Pom' Shells

An early pair of 37mm 'pom pom' shells that have been deactivated are in excellent condition. One of the shells has the markings 'PDPs, 3785, 399' on its base, and the other is blank, and both the iron and copper shell heads have numerous numbers and the letter "R." Both shells measure 17cm in length.

A light automatic cannon fired these 1-pound shells and was known as a Pom Pom Gun" because of the sound it made when firing. It was mounted on a field gun carriage for towing by horses and fast deployment and was designed by Hiram Maxim, inventor of the Maxim Machine Gun, in the late 1890s.

It was essentially an enlarged version of the original Maxim gun and fired exploding shells. Because the shells were exploding, they had to be kept over a minimum weight so as not to violate treaties against the use of exploding bullets and so that they could instead be classified as artillery.

Though the guns were produced under licence by the British armaments firm of Vickers and Sons, the Boer Transvaal Republic bought several of these guns, and so during the war, the British found themselves under fire from these very agile and deadly weapons.

The British soon realised their mistake and began supplying their forces with the same weapons.