I've read reports of advantages gained by the Wehrmacht using smokeless munitions versus the Americans. But I know that smokeless munitions were in production by most major nations in WWII. Perhaps it was the degree of 'smokelessness' that was significant. Could somebody please summarise who used what and to what extent? Thank you in advance, David
All American ammo was smokeless in WWII, as far as I know. The only black powder used was primer charges in very large cannons. Might be degrees of smokelessness, as you suggest but I've never noticed a lot of smoke from any modern ammo. Sometime the gun oil will smoke a little bit as the gun heats up. Just my experience though
I believe that Japenese snipers (or possibly general infantry) used smokeless powder to make it much harder to spot their position(s) Japanese Snipers in WW2 • Axis History Forum Under the guidance of Colonel Namio Tatsumi, the 6.5mm Type 97 and 7.7mm Type 99 rifles were developed, being equipped with 2.5x or 4x power telescopic sights. One advantage of the smaller 6.5mm cartridge was that there was almost no smoke from the discharge, and the sound of the rifle-a distinctive high-pitched "crack"-made it very difficult to locate. TD
The AA used flash and flashless in Italy once they were converted to a field role in September 1944 (although the latter was in shorter supply), as evidenced below in the distinction between these. "That night we went into action. It had been noisy all day – 88’s and 105’s being active. We fired something like 200 rounds of “flash” about 01.30hrs. Jerry took a hate to us, and after a preliminary air burst or two opened up and gave us something like 60 rounds in one salvo. They all fell in and around the site. A most uncomfortable sensation. It seemed the next was going to hit something. One did burst behind No. 4, and there were a few air bursts over the camp. There was a guardian angel over us that night, we had no damage or casualty."
