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Old 10th August 2010, 22:33
Johnny .45 Johnny .45 is offline
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Re: Tracer ammunition in aerial weapons?

Yeah, thanks. I guess it is a pretty complex topic; I'm just glad to glean whatever little scraps anyone knows about things. Like I was reading today how when the Luftwaffe created the new drawn-steel "mine-shells" (Minengeschoss) for the MG FF, they had to modify the gun into the MG FF/M because the original's action wouldn't cycle with the lower-recoil thin-walled ammo. Because the mine-shells couldn't hold tracers, they designed new, lighter AP-I shells and mixed them in with the mine-shells shells, to act as tracers.

For all but the first year of the war, the British and Americans used "De Wilde" incendiaries (although slightly different versions)...originally based on a Belgian design. In RAF service, it was designated "B.Mk VI", and it replaced/supplemented the earlier "Buckingham" tracer ammo.
The "Buckingham" wasn't entirely phased-out, since there were still considerable stocks of ammunition left, and it was a "true" tracer, as it illuminated all through it's flight. The bullet was hollow and had an open base; this cavity was filled with a chemical incendiary compound, and doubled as tracer- and incendiary-filling.
The "De Wilde" round, in comparison, did NOT have a hollow base, and the incendiary material was designed to ignite on impact with the target. Although this meant that the round was useless as a "true" tracer (it didn't light up in flight), the impact and violent combustion of the materials inside left a flash and report, which made it quite obvious whether the rounds were hitting or not.
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