.50 calibre rounds

[Juha]

IIRC Armor-Piercing-Incendiary, M8 was the main type of ammo used by USAAF fighter pilots in late WWII.

Juha

[Kutscha]

[drgondog]

Why assume no aircraft attacks? Mustangs were strafing Linz, Eferding, Prague, Brux areas from the UK in March/April 1945.

Regards,

Bill

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Bill,

Unless an Allied fighter aircraft was aiming at an Me 262 on the Autobahn, it seemed to me more likely that the .50 caliber bullets and shells were fired from the ground. Add to that that the person found both bullets and shells. If fired from an aircraft, one would think that the shells wouldn't be anywhere near the bullets. From what my acquaintance told me, the rounds were found at 2 small square structures on the south side of the Autobahn, which may have been manned guardhouses that engaged the oncoming ground forces. Finally, the Allies never knew the location of the Kuno I Waldwerk until they happened upon it - it was that well camouflaged. So, what would an Allied aircraft be doing there in the first place, unless possibly attacking an Me 262 on the Autobahn?

Thus, the preponderance of circumstantial evidence points to ground fired .50 caliber ammunition and, of course, why I asked the question in the first place.

I thank all who have helped to educate me.

Regards,
Richard

[drgondog]

Wasn't being critical. However, there were many attacks on Me 262s on or parked in trees near the autobahn, particularly in March/April 1945

It is more likely IMO that ground fire was the source but impossible to rule out strafing.

The other thing to consider for ground fire is that the actual projectiles should be far from the fired casing whereas a strafing run places bullets in a running pattern and closes with the aircraft possibly still ejecting casings as it continues to shoot

[hanshauprich]

Millons of .50BMG where fired over Germany, during air and ground battles.
In most cases it is nearly impossible where they cam from. What looks the headstamp at the empty cartrigdes?
The green bullet: only the tip in green or the hole bullet? (Green was AP by the britisch forces). And: the German Wehrmacht use the .50BMG (captured weapons) also, often in the AAA role. Ammo was not a big problem the USAF deliver it on an nearly daily bases (joke!)
h.

[Blücher]

Hello Everybody,

I am the person who found the .50 cal. Shells and bullets at the site of Kuno 1. Thank you all for your help.
Some of you asked about the “headstamp” of the shells. Both shells are stamped with “S L 43”.

I uploaded some photos of the shells and the bullets, so you can take a look at them by yourself.

Kind Regard,

Blücher

[hanshauprich]

S.L. St. Louis Ammo Plant Missouri, 43 - 1943. That mean only the cartrigde is from 1943, not the complete round! So it can be fired 1943 but also in 1944, 1945!

[Kutscha]

Did ground units use incendiary rounds?

[RSwank]

Yes I believe they did. Here is an example from Vietnam on how 50 cal M2s were used on trucks and how they were loaded. I don't think this was anything newly invented for Vietnam.

http://books.google.com/books?id=6Ae...tracer&f=false

They set up two types of 100 round belts. One used 2 incendiary, 2 AP incendiary, and one AP-Incendiary-tracer. The other type of belt used 4 ball and 1 tracer.


In Gordon Rottman's book on Browning 50 Caliber Machine Guns, on page 37 he mentions the standard mix for 50 cal used in an antiaircraft role as:
"At this time (early WWII) the functional ammunition mix was four ball to one tracer, two armor-piercing, two incendiary, and one tracer, which was excellent for antiaircraft use."