WW2 Red Wooden bullets.

The author, whose name I can't recall, of the book "With British snipers to the Rhine" mentions finding MG42 ammo belts with every fifth round (I think) having a wooden bullet. The general consensus was that this was to conserve scarce metals. I can't see this working in a recoil operated weapon but I'm prepared to stand correction on this point. For my money these belts may have been used as an aid to training in the clearing of stoppages, although this could have been achieved by simply removing cartridges from the belt as we used to do with the Vickers.

British .303 bulleted blank had a blue bullet and was only to be used in Brens fitted with a special barrel which had the flash hider constricted to break up the bullet.

Didn't the Schoubou pistol fire a wooden bullet fitted with an aluminium half jacket to take the rifling ?

 

There is nothing 'late war' about the wooden bulleted blank.
I have a clip of 5 all with different dates. The colour varies from red to almost purple.
Some also exhibit the milled bands that note how many times the case has been reloaded.
After the second band they were scrapped.
I'll dig them out and get a photo if you like?

 

Some years ago I read the book With British snipers to the Reich by Clifford Shore. In this he describes coming across filled belts for the above in which every fifth (I think) cartridge contained a wooden bullet, the authors conclusion being that this was to conserve resources.
Now the only way I can see this working would be to cause a stoppage every fifth round. Input anyone?

 

In Normandy we found boxes of red wooden bullets in a normal army bullet case. Boxes of them. We never found out why., But there was a metal shortage apparently, for the German stick grenades all had serrated concrete heads. We never found a metal grenade..

 

They are 'Platzpatronen' basically practice or training/drill rounds. They were hollowed out so that upon firing they would disintegrate so as not to cause injury to anyone who may be in the way , I have a book here at home that shows a picture of a wooden 20mm flak round, the purpose being that crews could practice without wasting live rounds. Platzpatronen originated in 1890 for use in the new Mauser rifles and were originally supplied by the Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken Aktien-Gesellschaft (DWM) of Karlsruhe. The French used to use similar green coloured rounds for their Lebel rifles and the Dutch also used to use wooden practice rounds for their .303 Lee Enfields in the late 50' and early 60's and I think in the early 20th Century the British commonwealth issued .303 wooden practice rounds, post war the Soviet Union and Warsaw pact also used wooden practice rounds, as did Finland.

Some German units on the night of 6th June 1944 were carrying out anti-airborne training and may well have been carrying the 'platzpatronen' rounds at the time. There are also reports of Allied soldiers, in Europe and the Pacific, being shot and wounded with wooden bullets, but these would need to be 'solid' wooden rounds and not the 'platzpatronen' variety. The theory being that they were intended to wound rather than kill thus taking men from the front line as others would have to carry the wounded man back to an aid station, although as I understand it the use of wooden rounds in those circumstances is against the Geneva convention.

 

There's a thread here on the subject:

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/9311-ww2-red-wooden-bullets/?hl=wooden

 

I heard from a veteran that the germans used "bulleted blank" for covering fire.

Most Allied troops would take cover when the MG42 started firing and if all that was being fired was splinters the German troops could walk in front of the machine gun.

Lawrence

 

Practise rounds were the first thing that came to my mind but the book says they were mixed with live rounds in the belts. Vickers gunners were trained by having rounds pulled from the ammo belts and I can see the German army achieving a similar result by putting practise rounds in the belts. However, the author claimed that such belts were found in some numbers in front line positions. So what do we have? A case with a wooden bullet and a powerful powder load to cycle the weapon in keeping with the authors opinion that this was to conserve resources? I've never heard of such a thing and can't see how it's technically possible. Perhaps the author's memory played him false.

 

I found a wooden bullet round in the hull of my charioteer, presumably from it's days during finish service.
unfortunately I have no idea why the germans would have used a wooden round in a frontline position .someone will have to speak to a german and find out.

rick

 

I suppose it depends on what the author called/was referring to as front line positions bearing in mind that prior to the 6th June 1944 there was no front line in France. Prior to 6th June wooden bullets stored in German defensive positions in Normandy make sense because of them being issued to the troops for training purposes, like I said in my quoted post above some German units were out on anti-airborne training the night of the 5/6th June, so it's quite plausible that they would be carrying practice rounds.

 

More wooden bullets evidence!!!!
From: Brothers in Battle by Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron.

Quote:
"Just when we got past the hedgerows,when we could see the farmhouses,bam! A sniper fired at us and hit Blithe in the neck,and he dropped to the ground.I yelled for covering fire so we could get to him,and someone called for a medic.His wound had what looked like red wooden splinters in it,like they hit him with wooden bullets.We seen clips of wooden bullets around Brecourt.Who knows what the Germans were doing with wooden bullets?Maybe they thought it was better to wound a soldier rather than kill him,his buddies would try to retrieve him and they could get a few more kills."

Blithes wounds put him out of the war! so pretty deadly.

 

The wood bullet of the Platzpatrone 33 had a very short range, perhaps 25 to 30 yards at best owing to its light weight. Unless that man was on top of the sniper there is no way he was shot with the wood bullet from a blank.

The whole point about a blank, whether wood bulleted or not, is that it is non lethal.

Regards
TonyE

 

Tony E is 110% correct These are BLANKS, wooden bulleted blanks, designed for use in Machine guns of whatever nation, I have fired 1000's upon 1000's of them.

 

This is article by Captain C Shore in British snipers to the Reich.
Hope thumbnail comes out readable if not I will type it.

 

I might also add that I have fired bulleted blank from the Bren.
The blank firing barrel was fitted this had a cone shaped flash eliminator with half the aperture metalled off leaving a half moon shaped opening.
This reminds me of the old chestnut.
What is the smallest part of a Bren with the longest name?
Answer
The barrel locking nut retaining plunger.

 

This rather interesting memo has the possible answer as to why there were boxes of red wooden blank bullets in Normandy.

 

So glad that someone else reckons british bulleted blank had blue wooden bullets! Use of bulleted blank from your Bren at night was spectacular - flames shot out of the end of the barrel to an impressive degree!

Chris