An artillery shell is provided in its nose in front of its bursting charge and its detonator with an impact fuze consisting of a pressure- distributing plate engageable with the inside face of the nose, a piezoelectric crystal resting against the back face of this plate, and an anvil resting against the back of the crystal. A pin is seated in the anvil and extends transverse to the direction of travel of the projectile and a spring-steel wire has a front end looped around this pin and a rear end passing back through the bursting charge and connected to the shell detonator. When the crystal is compressed either by deformation of the nose of the shell or inertial pressure of the anvil against the back of the crystal, it generates electrical energy that is passed back through the spring-steel wire to the detonator to activate same.
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