Shortage of Brass

[Gage]

Does anybody know anything about the Germans having a shortage of brass and having to use lacquered steel cartridges?
Apparently the lacquer would melt when the breech of a weapon became hot and cause the cartridges to stick. Slowing down the rate of fire massively.

[T. A. Gardner]

Yes, the Germans did have a real shortage of brass and made alot of cartridge and shell casings out of substitute materials, commonly steel. Rifle rounds often had gilt metal jacket material due to a general shortage of copper. Aluminum was sometimes substituted for larger shell casings also.
Don't know about the sticking problem but, a steel on steel casing to gun breech would probably have caused some problems in service. If a laquer or other finish was on a steel casing then it would have likely been possible for this to cause problems too.

[kfz]

YEp my understanding is that copper was the problem. This cuased a lot of problems for electrical equipment , wiring being at a premium.

Not sure of the copper sources during ww2. Africa is it?

Kev

[von Poop]

If you try and buy an 88 round the majority available are steel cased late war designs.

The true pistol cartridge had a brass case and gilding metal or gilding-metal-plated bullet, but this varied according to scarcity of desirable metals,
As substitutes, cases of steel with a copper wash or steel blackened with a protecting lacquer were used. Bullets were made with copper and nickel-alloy jackets, pure nickel jackets, and with gilding-metal-plated steel jackets.

http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwii/woundblstcs/chapter1.2.htm

Nowadays steel is normally used in larger cannon, particularly linear-action guns with a high rate of fire, because its extra strength is better at coping with the violent treatment the cartridge is given by the loading mechanism. It is also slightly lighter and cheaper. However, it requires more protection against corrosion and, being less resilient, forms a less perfect seal on firing. Steel cases have been used in military small arms, especially from Germany in WW2 and from Russia, but they have never been popular for commercial use.

From Tony Williams's excellent site.

I felt sure I'd read of fouling issues from the anti-rust coating too, but I can only find Internet reference to modern shooters suffering while using wartime ammunition & as that involves 60 years of decay of the coating it's hardly evidence.

EDIT: Just rooted through George Markham's 'Guns of the Reich' and a couple of Hogg encyclopedias & while they make quite a bit of reference to coated steel case rounds I haven't yet seen any criticism.

[sapper]

We never found a German stick grenade with a metal head, they were all serrated concrete. We also found many boxes of live rifle bullets. like 303 with the bullet end made of bright red wood. We never got to the bottom of that one?
Sapper

[von Poop]

Ah, here we go Gage:
"Successful attempts were made in the mid 1930's to develop steel cases - Freeing supplies of Brass for more vital tasks - though the first patterns had to be brass or copper washed to guarantee smooth feed. An effectual greyish-green lacquer coating was subsequently perfected but even this failed to prevent auto feed troubles and an additional coating of durable wax had to be approved in 1944. Virtually insensitive to temperature & humidity oil or grease made the wax sticky; consequently feed problems were never entirely cured prior to 1945"
George Markham on the 7.9MM Gewehr-patrone in 'Guns of the Reich'.

[CROONAERT]

Originally Posted by sapper

. We also found many boxes of live rifle bullets. like 303 with the bullet end made of bright red wood. We never got to the bottom of that one?
Sapper

They were originally intended for use on manouvres, Brian, (a sort of blank round in a way) but could penetrate and be lethal at short ranges. There were also reports of the Turks using these in action in Palestine in 1918 in the previous war - desperate times call for desperate measures, i suppose!

Other uses of these wooden bullets (though probably not for the German Army) was in riot control. Sometimes known as "knee-knockers", they were, I suppose, sometimes used as a form of olde worlde baton round.

Dave

[Gage]

Thanks everyone. Some great info.
This is the only thing I could find on it - 'Shortage of brass led to the intro of steel cartridges which had to be lacquered to protect from rust. Breeches of weapons became hot and caused cartridges to stick. Machine gunners would have to change barrels after every burst and riflemen to force open the bolts with their entrenching tools' - by Tony Le Tissier.