From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
It was not the Spitfires nor the Hurricanes or their pilots which
alone won that battle. The victory was due to a remarkable piece of
British technology, the B Mark 7 or bluenose bullet. This bullet,
so-called for its blue nose (in contrast to the rednose or tracer
bullet, and the blacknose or armourpiercing bullet) exploded when it
hit its target and blew a hole the size of your fist.
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I have to correct whoever made the above statement. The letter "B"
on the headstamp & the colour blue on the bullet nose denoted
INCENDIARY not explosive. The first experiments with this type of
bullet were carried out in WWI by BROCK (the Firework people)
others were BUCKINGHAM & POMEROY. The first designs were intended
for use against Zepplins & were so sensitive as to be a hazard to
the firer. BROCK suceeded in a design which contained phosphorus,
the bullet had a shoulder just before the case mouth & the
phosphorus was retained in the bullet by little plugs of a low
melting point lead tin mixture.
whilst in the cartridge case the little plugs were held in by the
case neck, on firing the rifling cut the shoulder on the bullet
weakening it & heat plus centrifugal force got rid of the little
plugs. As for the name bluenose, I've collected cartridges for over
50 years, never heard bluenose before, sounds a bit like some one
romatisising.
The Incendiaries used in WW2 were of a different design, the
bullet had the mark 7 shape, but the interior was entirely
different, inside was a steel tube with an incediary compound in it,
held in place at the base by a small washer, in the nose of the
bullet was a small ball bearing which was just slightly bigger than
the hole in the tube. When fired the the bullet on striking the
target tried to push the ball down the tube, the heat generated
ignited the incendiary compound.
I KNOW BECAUSE I'VE SECTIONED THEM.
The head stamp for tracer was "G", the colour red was for land use
only, the colour white was a day time tracer for Aircraft use & the
colour grey was for night time Aircraft use.
A bullet painted BLACK was the true explosive. I've never sectioned
one of these so I don't know whats inside them, I may be daft but
I'm not stupid.
Armour piercing ammo was headstamped "W" & remained uncoloured.
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This was Britain's complete answer to the German air force's
self-sealing petrol tank. There was no defence against it. On 15
September the bluenose bullets were issued to all fighter aircraft
used in the defence of Britain. On that day 185 German aircraft were
destroyed and the next day Goering stopped daylight raids.
I don't think any one had self sealing fuel tanks in 1940, some
experiments had been done with glass balls filled with a fire
retardent, floating in the fuel tanks. But nothing much can protect
against incediary bullets & leaking fuel no matter how small the
leak, once ignited a fire tends to find all the fuel it needs
Retlaw
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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