US contract Labels

[TonyE]

I was sorting out my labels and as the subject of US made ammunition for Britain has come up a couple of times, I thought I would post a few pictures.

First, .50 Browning.

The first British purchases of .50 Browning ammunition were in early 1940 to use with the guns in recently purchases American aircraft. These were not Lend Lease, but paid for from British gold reserves. This ammunition was bought from both Remington and the US government and was AP and Tracer. It was packaged in normal US boxes and marked in the normal way, so I have not bothered to post these.

The first contracts were placed for the RAF with Remington in 1940 and were for AP, Tracer and Drill. The early boxes were regular Remington with "SPECIAL FOR RAF" overstamped and the AP box had the black tip colour overprinted with "GREEN".

The later boxes were specially printed with the RAF and green tip colour printed. Both ordinary Remington "RA 41" and special "50 CAL Z" headstamps were used.

Pictures show .50 calibre rounds, headstamps and box labels.

I will post some .303 and 9mm labels next.

Regards
TonyE