Use of armour-piercing and incendiary .303-inch by British Inf units

One of my many mini quests is finding contemporary information on unit ammunition allocations. I have not been able to find the September 1944 document Staff Ammunition Scales that quantified this for British Army units and vehicles.

The Canadian Army published something akin to this in the months after VE-Day, which can be seen here.

Canadian Military Headquarters, London : T-17516 - Image 298 - Héritage (canadiana.ca)

They mostly tally with the figures given in an NDHQ policy letter (but not seemingly a CMHQ document) that can be found here;

Canadian Military Headquarters, London : T-17516 - Image 189 - Héritage (canadiana.ca)

The last reliable figures I have for the Bren gun in British sources show 1500 rounds first line holdings per Bren, with a further 600 each in 2nd and 3rd line (3rd line was abolished during 1944). This consisted of 1000 rounds ball and 500 rounds tracer. The Canadian figures from early 1944 indicate 1100 ball, 300 tracer and 100 incendiary per Bren, plus 25 rounds AP.

I've not seen anything indicating incendiary rounds being held for the Bren in British usage. The only mention I've seen of AP is for figures compiled for a Mixed Division in the Med area, during 1943, which surprisingly has 10 rounds AP per rifle in 1st and 2nd line holdings (I think this may be a holdover from desert war days but I'm not sure).

I was wondering if anyone had seen incidental references to British Inf units using AP and incendiary rounds at all? I'm wondering whether the Canadian figures were unique to them, or a reflection of a change in British practice.

Thanks,

Gary

 

Issuing incendiary ammunition to the infantry would have been a bit iffy, as incendiary or explosive bullets were technically illegal (although regarded as acceptable for use by, or against, aircraft).

 

Well after posting the above I found an answer to part of it, in a document I'd already seen. A War Office letter of July 1943 outlined that, of the total 25 magazines allocated per Bren gun, 5 were to be marked up for AA use and loaded one third each ball/tracer/incendiary. Seemingly this loading was only to be done when units were deemed to be vulnerable to air attack, otherwise these magazines were to be used as normal. The same letter noted that the eventual aim for the Bren gun was to have a split of;

Ball 11 of 15
Tracer 3 of 15
Incendiary 1 of 15

When applied to the usual 1500 rounds 1st line ammunition for a Bren gun that does make 1100 ball, 300 tracer and 100 incendiary. I've not seen any British figures on the mixture of SAA ammunition after mid-1943 so don't know if this was enacted. 100 incendiary rounds would allow for 50 for the five AA mags plus a 100% replacement I suppose. I honestly don't know if units actually did this in the field though, sounds a bit of a faff for anything beyond the Bren guns found in Admin Pls/Tps and the like.

Gary

 

That makes sense - confining the incendiaries to magazines clearly marked up for AA use should minimise the legal problem, although it would also be a good idea only to issue these magazines to Brens installed on high-angle AA mountings.

 

Brens installed on dedicated AA mountings would have utilised the 100 round drum magazine, so confining the use of incendiaries to this magazine type might also have worked, I suppose.

 

Ironically, a quick web search indicates that most photos of Brens on AA mountings show them with box magazines, whereas one of the rare photos of the gun with the drum magazine shows it on a bipod!

Which maybe emphasises the yawning gulf between what was supposed to happen and what actually happened in the chaos of warfare...