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I am interested in all things BEF, including ammunition and its packaging. I have read that HE shells were painted Buff but see in various docments, including the 1936 Textbook of Ammunition, that they were painted Yellow. Am I misunderstanding something here?
Thanks for the quick response. Buff (Light, Middle and Deep) are all quite distinct colours, mentioned in the colour standards of the day so not really to be confused with yellow. I would be interested if anyone else has heard of a reason why buff is sometimes described as the colour for HE.
In the meantime, is there anyone else with a particular interest in the BEF?
Hi Andrew,
I'm not sure if this helps but I have been trying to tie down dates to colour codes on 20mm Hispano and Oelikons on another thread,from a chart that has now been dated for me by TonyE it does indeed show HE Hispano and Oerlikon as being coloured buff,but are marked up as being obsolete by this date(1943),the US version was yellow at this time.
I am not sure if the buff colour was obsolete by then or HE itself as it may be that it was dropped in favour of the HE-I that was coloured half red and half buff with the Hispano and all red with the Oerlikon.
Still working with it but yes buff was the colour code for HE on British shells at one time. .http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/80730-Oerlikon-and-Hispano
Hi Andrew,
the official buff colour that was used for HE shells is 'middle buff number 359',there is also a download (PDF) in our download section that should prove very useful to you 'INTERSERVICE AMMUNITION & AMMUNITION PACKAGE MARKINGS', has all the British colour codes for just about all types of ammunition from the period of interest to you.
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