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H. 30 Ammunition box

H

hangarman

Well-Known Member
Have just purchased a nice H. 30 1 E made in 1943 that allegedly contained fusee matches.The Consolidated list states that the H. 30 is for 15mm Besa. Can anyone confirm its use for fusee matches ? It is pretty plain on the outside but on the inside it is a brilliant blue! It also has V shaped battens on each end. I guess when the boxes were new ammo dumps must have been pretty colourful places.
Cheers
Hangarman
 
The consolidated list uses data from a 1943 RAOS publication which is basically a snapshot in time. I would guess that since their is only 1 entry in the list of data that the box was either originally designed for the Besa round and later used for the items you describe or the original item was obsolete by the time the RAOS was published and at that time the Besa round was the only other round used in that box, later used by the items you describe. This is a common occurance and I have seen it frst hand. One example is the C.238 of various marks (I and II to my knowledge). It had various uses in 1943 from 6pdr and 75mm AP to smoke generators and 7.2" Cartridges to what it is used for nowadays which includes 120mm tank practice and trip flare kits. Why bother designing a new box when one already in service will do the same job. Another example is the H. 83 which holds anything from 5.56mm to hand grenades.

Boxes are repaired, repainted and reused. It is more than probabl that your box may have been used for more than one type of munition in its lifetime.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your new purchase, the consolidated list doesn't have one yet :D
 
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