WW2 Red Wooden bullets.

Just reading a reference to these bullets in a book: Voices from D-Day by Jonathan Bastable. Page 274:

Areden Benthien of the US 1st division saw someone get shot with a toy bullet.

"The German unit, the 352nd Infantry I think, were carrying on anti-invasion maneuvers. We came in right among them. For the purpose of maneuvers, they were apparently issued with wooden bullets for both rifles and machine guns. The rounds did fire. One of our guys took a hit in the upper arm with one of these things. It didn't make a deep wound, didn't penetrate the flesh at all. Just exploded right there, made a sort of nasty flesh wound. They had to bandage it up. I've never seen this noted anywhere, but it is real. I've still got one of the rounds."

 

Interesting thread.

I would say they are most likely as some have already mentioned either used for spotting or zeroing the weapon at short ranges (No risk from ricochets) and or used to fire rifle grenades. A low powered round was used for this purpose.

Sapper did they look like this ?

 

I am researching my fathers army career and live wooden tipped bullets were used by Italian soldiers to guard british prisoners of war.They were quite capable of inflicting injury but were not very accurate as there trajectory was very poor after a few yards. This was witnessed by my father as he fired a rifle with such a bullet.

 

Yes.But the bullet itself was a bit shorter.
Sapper

 

Trevor,

Welcome to the forum and an interesting first post.

Regards

Tom

 

I think I may have solved this mystery

I was just watching 'The Colour of War' on Sky just now when the following was said by a American Combat Engineer fighting in Europe:

We cleared many obstacles along the route such as dead cows, horses and dead Germans soldiers. We noticed that the dead Germans had wooden bullets in their machine gun belts. The theory being the bullets wouldn't kill ya but send ya to the hospital where it would require more resources to care for the wounded.

Sergeant Arthur E. Boucher
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

 

In that German "Hide out" that they had built themselves, we found boxes of these wooden bullets. Thousands of them. All with a red dyed colour. Not a hard wood by the way.. And of course The Pungent scented German Smell.
Sapper

 

I have a bullet somewhere that a Toronto Scottish vet gave me some years ago - telling me it came from a German late in the war. Since seeing this thread I have been looking for it, but it is well hidden from view and memory. I will post a picture of it when I find it.

As regards to blanks, I remember on a night exercise shooting [by mistake of course] an umpire who gave me my pedigre in no uncertain terms because I hit him apparently with wadding or something from the 7.62 blanks. But Sir, I asked you to halt and identify yourself!!! It was about then that the Thunder Flash went off in our position. I think the Umpire threw it!

 

These red wooden rounds are 'bulleted blank',
I have only just spotted this thread. You are nearly right.
British Bulleted Blank bullets are NOT red, they are blue. Rounds with red wooden bullets are indeed Drill Rounds. (As can be seen from the lack of a primer in the primer pocket.

Bulleted Blank was indeed issued to the British Army (not just cadets) for use in Bren Guns. A special (smasher) barrel (BFAs came in with the L4 and Bulleted Blank was not needed for it.) was installed in place of the existing barrel(s). When the gun fired the wooden bullet provided enough gas pressure to operate the working parts. The wooden bullet hit a restriction at the end of the barrel and was 'smashed' into splinters which hit the ground a few inches in frot of the muzzle.

Bulleted Blank is indeed lethal from an unrestriced barrel and so there was stannding order that it was NEVER to be fired from a rifle.

 

Hi Beerhunter and welcome to the forum,

Any idea how or why the Germans were using them in combat (Wooden Red Bullets that is)?

Cheers
Andy

 

Thanks for the welcome. Sorry can't help with German bullets - not my field.

 

Just for information, here are examples of a British .303 Bulleted Blank (Top - blue bullet) and a wooden .303 Drill Round (Bottom - red bullet)

Please note that in the UK, one can only possess the former on a valid Firearms Certificate. (Which this one is.) In spite of the wooden bullet it is ammunition, which at short range is lethal.

 

maybe because some countries could not afford to make ammunition

 

Amazing thread.

I've never heard of this - and yet it seems it's been known about and discussed for a long while. So, any idea as to how much was issued and to who in the German military? Was it used only in Normandy (where many personal accounts seem to be set) or did it stretch all the way back to the Defence of Berlin?

Does this wooden bullet principle carry over to aircraft ordnance?

How come this never made it into Saving Private Ryan or B0B?
Would have thought it could have been included for obscure accuracy.


fascinating, thanks for the thread

Kind regards

 

Why I started this thread was that we found boxes of these wood bullets

 

Nothing changes, my RAF basic training rifle for drill was of the wooden variety...such a shock when you suddenly go on the range...Perhaps we couldnt be trusted. And that was in the seventies.

In eightees I again did some basic for other reasons but this time they gave me the real thing to throw around.

 

Where was the bunker, Sapper? Which country I mean



all the best

 

Back in February, I promised to show the wooden bullet I have in my collection. Just found it moments ago. It came to me from a member of the Toronto Scottish who retrieved this in Nijmegen. Hope it is helpful to this conversation.

cheers.
phil

 

Phil,

It looks very long in comparison to normal metal ones. It also looks to be about 0.5" in calibre.

Any idea which guns would use this size?

Regards
Tom