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What type of ammo boxes or tins were used by the Airborne Forces in 1944?

Miller

New Member
Hi there!

New here. As I couldn`t find anything in the other topics....

What kind of ammo boxes or ammo tins were used by the British Airborne in 1944? For .303 and 9mm?

So far we have been using the H51 ammo boxes for Living History. But recently someone told us they weren`t in use in september `44.

Could someone please point me (us) in the right direction, please?

Thanks in advance!

This is our group: www.wardepartment.nl

Thank you in advance!

Kind regards,

Floris
 
What was known as a 'Universal SAA Package' was introduced late in the war. This comprised an outer steel container (Box Steel H50), containing 2 x wooden inner packages (H51), each containing a tin/terne plate inner with a soldered lid (H52). These were produced to meet a requirement for jungle and tropic zones, notably Burma.
They were initially made to contain basic infantry ammunition. Cartridges .303 Ball in bandoliers or cartons, cloth belted .303 for Vickers MG, 7.92mm BESA belts and 9mm in cartons.
Until that time all small arms ammunition was packed in a variety of natural wood boxes, in many cases specific to one calibre of SAA ammunition. These had no internal liner and would be quite flimsy for airdrop. I cannot say whether any were syphoned off for use by airborne forces, but there was a need for a package with an outer like the H50 to stop monsoon rain soaking into packages and to allow water to drain out.
There was no need to repackage .45 Thompson or .50 MG because it was packaged in the admirable US M2 and M3 packages, which were the basis of the British H82 and H83 package, which eventually followed the the H50 in the 1960s.
H50s are still around, but may be getting scarce because they make excellent toolboxes.
 
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I see there is no Box Wood H7 in the list.
This was used for packaging Cartridges .303" Incendiary as carried in the H13, for air service use.
It also contained .303 Armour Piercing and .303" Tracer, also for air service use.
In all cases it contained 768 Incendiary rounds in 16 cartons of 48. The Incendiary pack weighed 52lbs, the AP 55lbs and the Tracer 53lbs.
Unfortunately I have no photos, drawings or other package information.
This information comes from the Ammunition Handbook for the RASC 1936 (as amended), who were responsible for the movement of all ammunition until the formation of the Royal Corps of Transport, at which time this responsibility was taken over by the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
 
These are my sources for the consolidated lists.
Regulations for Army Ordnance Services Part II Pamphlet No. 8 Instructions to guide the operations of securing, sealing and opening lids of ammunition packages (31st January 1934)
Regulations for Army Ordnance Services Part 6 Supply of Ammunition in the Field (8th August 1944)
Regulations for Army Ordnance Services Part 7 Pamphlet No. 1 An Introductory Survey of Ammunition (17th June 1944)
Regulations for Army Ordnance Services Part 7 Pamphlet No. 11 Small Arms Ammunition (24th February 1945)
Regulations for Army Ordnance Services Volume 2 War Pamphlet 10 (12th September 1951)
RAOS Vol 2 Pam 10 1951

The main source being
Royal Army Ordnance Corps Statistics Pamphlet No. 2 Weights and Measurements of Explosives (21st June 1943)

How large is the list of stuff in your RASC pub?

H7 might have been withdrawn by the time my sources were published
 
As I pointed out the responsibility for ammunition movement at that time was the RASC.
All the Box Wood H7 SAA was for the air service and would not necessarily appear in any RAOS publication if it was dedicated for air services only, which in this case it was. There are several other boxes for land service covering all these natures and types which you have covered. These are also listed.
This particular part of the book was dated April 1940 and is purely for the benefit of RASC drivers. It only deals with what they need to know to identify that they have got the right ammunition and to get it from points A to B.
It does not say how many packages you can get into a 21 piece IG shelter, or other non movements related tasks, because this was the job of what were then Storemen Ammunition RAOC.
As this site deals with all services not just land service and umpteen other nations, in the unlikely event that anyone should ever find one of these packages, it would help to know what it was for.
 
EXTRACTED....All the Box Wood H7 SAA was for the air service and would not necessarily appear in any RAOS publication if it was dedicated.....EXTRACTED

First, thanks to LCPL COMBAT and AE501 for all they have contributed to this site, and specifically my knowledge of UK boxes. With my still very limited knowledge, and the info posted by the above individuals, I want to ask if that shouldn't be, ....Box Wood A.S.A H7... as per other UK boxes of the same approximate time?
 
Yes it should be, I was just being lazy because it was designed purely for use with SAA.
 
The land service users of H13 for .303 and H29 for 9mm are ready included in LCPLCOMBAT's excellent and comprehensive list of ammunition packagings (see link earlier in thread).
I do have package drawings, plates and sketches of non-SAA packages which are not included against some of the packages in the list, but I think the list is closed and I do not know how to include them. Perhaps if I added them as a forum packaging item from time to time he could add them.
 
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The land service users of H13 for .303 and H29 for 9mm are ready included in LCPLCOMBAT's excellent and comprehensive list of ammunition packagings (see link earlier in thread).
I do have package drawings, plates and sketches of non-SAA packages which are not included against some of the packages in the list, but I think the list is closed and I do not know how to include them. Perhaps if I added them as a forum packaging item from time to time he could add them.

If you make posts in the Packaging sub forum I can amend the index and include links to your posts
 
Having a look, I see very limited evidence for airborne forces using ammo boxes. The best evidence is wartime photos showing boxes. These seem very rare indeed. I guess metal boxes and tins very heavy and airborne forces want lightweight.

Paradata website has some great photos of the CLE drop containers with a variety of loads. These include g70
and B167 boxes which are readily found, though not with their normal loads. Another images shows Bren mag boxes, .455 revolver wood boxes and also .303 in the round ballast containers. There are some images of boxes on jeeps too.These include C224 boxes used for gun ammo, plus C263 for 6pdr ammo.
 
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