.303 Ammunition box... 1952.

[Nismosonic]

Dug out this old box at weekend from garage and gave it a clean, had this since I was school age, I remember picking it up out of some rubbish that had been put out for the dustman on way home from school, must have be around 1979 ish.
Been used for storage of all sorts over the years. at the time I found it I remember storing my Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox cars in it (I was 10 then).
Thought id post it here for all to see, stamped 288 CART .303 BALL Mk7 CTN ISA&A
faintly stamped RG 23/4/52. on top of box pressed into the wood is SV593A. On bottom 1952 and other that isn't legible.
Pic 1 after clean, pic 2 before.
All in all a tatty old wooden box, but very special to me, as its probably the thing I still own that i've had for the longest. :tinysmile_shy_t:

 

[hangarman]

Hi Nismosonic,
Nice Box.The box you have is an H51. Two of them would fit inside an H50. They were introduced in 1944 as part of the jungle pack. They were used to carry .303 in Belts, cartons and Bandoliers, .22 in Cartons , 9mm in cartons and 7.92 in Belts and cartons. They were used up until the late 60's (to hold 7.62 in Bandoliers and cartons,) when they were replaced by the H84.
Cheers
Gary

 

[butterfly]

Good memories Scott,

Here is my bit; for me circa 1976/77..........baseplate for a 36M Mills grenade. It used to have a practice Mills 36M attatched, it was not in the best conditon as far as these things go, but alas, its long gone. This was one of the very first items of WW2 memorabilia I ever got, I swapped it for Matchbox cars (it cost me quite a few cars, I remember my friends hands were full of cars and mine too! - but worth every car, at least I thought so!!). Perhaps not the most exciting piece ever, but means a lot to me.

regards Kev

 

[Nismosonic]

Thanks Hangarman for that info, didn't know any of that, really interesting. must have been a fair old weight when full, any idea what the number SV593A stamped into lid means? The yellow paint of "BALL" is over top of it.
Think this old box may well have been the thing that got me started, as a few weeks latter I had swapped something for a clip of .303 fired cases to put in it.
Nice Gascheck plate there Kev, that 9/16 I see stamped on it? I got my 1st grenade aged about 15, I swapped it with a friend across road from me for a "Realistic" stereo amplifier I had.. Still have that too, a complete mismatch Mills, a 23 mkIII FICO body, brass filler plug, the lever I made in metalwork at school, split pin and a keyring for the pin.. baseplug zinc painted white and dated 1940, but loved it at the time, think that was kept in "the box" at the time too. Major WOW factor when I took it to school. Couldn't get away with it anymore, they truly were great times.

 

[butterfly]

Too true ........... those were the days!!!

here is a better picture of the gas check, why I called it a baseplate I have no idea??? The date on it is 9/40 and made by REVO.
I remember a few of the 'lads' coming to school with Mills bombs, one lad I remember used one as a Keyring - (I did ask him if he wanted to part with it, but alas no was the answer)- they were different times back then for sure.
.....mind you, I was looking round the secondary schools for my daughter a couple of weeks or so ago and in one room they had a half decent display of WW1/WW2 artifacts..........amongst them was a cracking No3 rifle grenade, couldnt believe it, a finer example you'd be hard pressed to find!!! Now that was a surprise!!

regards Kev

 

[hangarman]

Ha, I remember getting my first grenade from a lad at school. it was dated 1969. I also got an Iron Cross in exchange for a prism that I had found. As you say, those were the days.......

 

[Bonnex]

Thanks Hangarman for that info, didn't know any of that, really interesting. must have been a fair old weight when full, any idea what the number SV593A stamped into lid means? [...].

SV numbers are part numbers, sometimes referred to as drawing numbers. SV is a prefix that indicates the part is 'packaging'. The A is a suffix that indicates the number refers to an assembly. An assembly will be made up from a number of parts (each with an SV number with no suffix) or a number of sub-assemblies (suffix of SA). The following prefixes were used for ammunition:
QV small arms ammunition
QW pyrotechnic stores
QX initiating stores
RW cartridges
RX rockets
SX projectiles
TV mortar bombs
TW grenades
TX mines and demolition stores
UV proof apparatus
UX implements

and suffixes decode as:

GA general arrangement
GE empty
GF filled
A assembly
SA sub-assembly

Be aware that suffixes used their own number range so for instance there will be a part, say SV15, and a sub-assembly SV15SA and an assembly SV15A referring to completely different packages.

Hope that is not too confusing.

 

[Nismosonic]

Thankyou Bonnex for your promt response.
Is very interesting, id never thought of posting about this box, probably as id had it so long I sort of took it for granted.
Gave me an idea for another post though... "what got everyone into collecting Ordnance?"

 

[Falcon]

Nice box. The lids for these are often missing.

What did your mum say when you walked in with it?

 

[AMMOTECHXT]

Thankyou Bonnex for your promt response.
Is very interesting, id never thought of posting about this box, probably as id had it so long I sort of took it for granted.
Gave me an idea for another post though... "what got everyone into collecting Ordnance?"

Hi Nismosonic, I think the subject of what got people interested in collecting ammo was covered in a post about 18 months ago, to which I believe I replied. Will see if I can find it and place a link here.

 

[Nismosonic]

Nice box. The lids for these are often missing.

What did your mum say when you walked in with it?

I recall very well what she said as it wasn't very often she swore! was followed by "don't leave it laying around otherwise it will go in the bin".
Funny how things repeat themselves, as the wife has said similar since I cleaned it up and brought it back in the house.

 

[hangarman]

I recall very well what she said as it wasn't very often she swore! was followed by "don't leave it laying around otherwise it will go in the bin".
Funny how things repeat themselves, as the wife has said similar since I cleaned it up and brought it back in the house.

Now my wife loves my boxes, She's going to bury me in one of them...