Hi Archmoco,
I have a Czech \19/\Z/\40/\VI/ that has faint trace of red neck sealer and a green annulus.I wonder if your 1937 Czech round could have been part of the early contract ammo to GB with the Besa MG,the year would be right and we used Czech ammo orriginaly before we manufactured out own?
Cheers
Tony
Tony - if you are talking about the tropic tracer that came from me, it is definitely the original bullet. Not only did i pull the round, but originally I had several of them.
The 1937 Czech tracer that archmoco has is unlikely to have a connection with the BESA. Although we purchased ammunition from the Czechs for the trials that was headstamped between 1936 and 1938 it was all ball AFAIK. There was no volume purchase of contract ball or tracer ammo from the Czechs.
The early trials with tracer were all carried out using ICI Kynoch ammo, as one of the anticipated advantages of adopting the BESA was that it was supposed to accept all makes of 7.92 ammunition and Kynoch already had a full range of loads in production for foreign contracts. In the event, the Kynoch cases proved too hard and separations ensued until Kynoch changed the hardness curve of their cases.
I have a Czech fired case that has the identical headstamp to that shown in the trials report that I recovered from the range at RSAF Enfield many years ago. Perhaps that is what archmoco was thinking of. (The website is Tony Williams, not me. My website is still being built)
Tracer was considered so important that in mid 1939 the Director of Artillery authorised the use of the Kynoch commercial design whilst the G Mark I was under development. They also used the Kynoch export "smoke tracer", which of course was their 7.92 mm version of the Buckingham incendiary. The earliest British BESA label I have shows this, and I think it probably dates from that time.
Also note that the label is printed in black on white paper which indicates a non stahdard store.
Regards
TonyE