I beleive there was a small charge, referred to as "red bag" that went it last and it was black powder.
WW II Tank shells (ammo)
- Thread starter Biggfoot44
- Start date
Dennis The B
US Veteran
Here's a link to an article about Naval Propellants. It has a great deal of info.
Naval Propellants - A Brief Overview
Naval Propellants - A Brief Overview
opoefc
US Veteran
I know Sherman tanks make smoke when the fire. I didn't worry too much about why, just hoped they would move out ASAP as they could attract a lot of counter fire, which could ruin your whole day.
. Ed
. Ed
GatorFarmer
Member
German tanks at the time usually had muzzle brakes. Many American tanks did not.
Smokeless powder
Smokeless powder just means 'not as smoky as black powder'. Some smokeless are almost as bad. Somebody here was commenting that they were using a certain powder combination and cast lubed bullets and the people next to them at the range asked if he was shooting black powder.
Smokeless powder just means 'not as smoky as black powder'. Some smokeless are almost as bad. Somebody here was commenting that they were using a certain powder combination and cast lubed bullets and the people next to them at the range asked if he was shooting black powder.
Smokeless powder
Smokeless powder just means 'not as smoky as black powder'. Some smokeless are almost as bad. Somebody here was commenting that they were using a certain powder combination and cast lubed bullets and the people next to them at the range asked if he was shooting black powder.
This doesn't sound like a big deal but the indoor range I go to has a guy waving a newspaper at the door to provide ventilation. I shot off about 8 rounds and had to wait until the smoke cleared to shoot again.
Smokeless powder just means 'not as smoky as black powder'. Some smokeless are almost as bad. Somebody here was commenting that they were using a certain powder combination and cast lubed bullets and the people next to them at the range asked if he was shooting black powder.
This doesn't sound like a big deal but the indoor range I go to has a guy waving a newspaper at the door to provide ventilation. I shot off about 8 rounds and had to wait until the smoke cleared to shoot again.
Didn't the Sherman tank have a Detroit diesel??? I had a bunch of pre 43 30-06 ammo once. It made some smoke but no where near what black powder would have done...I stripped a round down and found that they used some kind of waterproofing on the bullet and around the primer that looked like black tar. Not only did it smoke but it also puked up the bore pretty good. Also, the primers were corrosive up until 43...highly corrosive. I ruined a Garand barrel by firing that stuff and not cleaning it soon enough. I let the rifle sit for about a month without cleaning it....I learned my lesson. Another interesting fact regarding WWII ammo...WWII marked the last brass cases for artillery shells. Immediately following the war they stopped manufacturing brass cases artillery ammo. There was still tons of it around for quite some time afterwards though and it was still in use during Vietnam. I have an empty 3" deck gun case that is brass from WWII an old navy vet gave me and I had a brother in law in the Air Force during Vietnam. He gave me two 40mm Bofors cases that are brass. They were used on an AC-130 gunship. The "Blind Bat" squadron. I wonder if the 3" navy deck gun fired the same round as the 75mm Sherman tank???
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Kernel Crittenden
US Veteran, Absent Comrade
Some did. But Shermans had lots of different engines. IIMN there were at least two kinds of diesel, one made by CAT and one by GM. Most Shermans, if you can believe it, had an air-cooled radial aircraft engine! America's industry had a huge capacity to crank out aircraft engines, and they stuck them in everything that moved. A lot of power in a very light weight & compact package. Exactly what you want in a tank, at least in theory.
40mm Bofors
I know a little about 40mm ammo. In Vietnam they were still using WW2 ammo. Smokeless. Most of it had been Navy issue.
Didn't know AF was using it in gunships that far back. Guns
smoked a little, they put out 120 rds, per minute, per gun. Most
guns had flash suppressors removed.
XXIV Corps
I know a little about 40mm ammo. In Vietnam they were still using WW2 ammo. Smokeless. Most of it had been Navy issue.
Didn't know AF was using it in gunships that far back. Guns
smoked a little, they put out 120 rds, per minute, per gun. Most
guns had flash suppressors removed.
XXIV Corps
Frank46
US Veteran
I have a 5"54 shell casing that was fired in one of four 5"54 mounts on my carrier. Dated 1944. I believe that the navy uses all steel cases now as continuing use of brass or brass alloy shell casings became increasingly more expensive. I have one 105mm shell casing as marked airforce use only. I'm guessing that the air force C-130 aircraft that act as gunships use only brass cased ammunition. Interesting factoid, there was a tv show about the battle at Gallipoli and divers were sent down and recovered some long strands of cordite and after being in sea water all those years would readily ignite and burn after using a cigarette lighter. Frank
IIRC (?) "Bag Powder" was filled with smokeless powder BUT at the base had a small amount of black powder used to set off the main charge of smokeless powder. IIRC the small charge of black powder was in a small bag attached to the base of the smokeless powder bag.
Hi msinc! Don't know the exact designation, but diesel Shermans were used by the Marine Corps for ease of fuel supply as the landing boats were diesel-engined. We also supplied over 2,000 diesel Shermans to the Soviets as their tanks used diesel engines.
IIRC, the M3 75mm Sherman gun used the same round as the French 75mm 1897 field gun of WWI. I read that the 3" naval gun was adopted by the Army for use on M10 tank destroyers. It was a powerful gun, giving some 2,900 fps MV. The 75mm offered about 2050fps.
Kaaskop49
Shield #5103
I believe it was Navy issue ammo because on the bottom of each case was a little stamped anchor. I remember someone looking at them and saying the anchor meant it was Navy ammo.
I believe they all use steel cases now, I have a 105mm case that is steel and appears to be maybe cadmium plated {???} It is plated with something anyways.
Water shouldn't hurt it. Cordite is cellulose nitrate, with as much as 33% nitroglycerine in it. It carries it's own oxygen along with it and will probably burn under water.
Frank46
US Veteran
I recently watched on the military channel a episode regarding the C-130 and it definitely shows a brass case being shoved into the breech of a 105 cannon. And brass cased 40mm for the bofors gun they also carry. Maybe the air force has different requirements regarding what type cases are to be used. Frank
Seriously.
Diesel vs. Gasoline springs to mind.
I believe most of the diesel Sherman's were sent to Russia or used by the Marines
The rotary aircraft engines in the earlier Shermans belched smoke when they were started just like the airplanes did. Crews therefore left them running, which resulted in a serious spark plug shortage, according to Belton Cooper, author of Death Traps.
40mm ammo
40 mm came in metal water proof cans, 4 clips of 4 rds. per can.
Ammo was all Navy issue. About half of ammo was Brass the
rest was Cad. Plated steel. The cad/plated is yellow looking too.
All ammo was from WW2. Smokeless powder. Slugs were steel
with copper driving bands. 3 way detonation , contact det
tracer burn out, or air burst. Long range and short range air
burst. They had other types of ammo but this was the everyday
stuff in the Nam. They had Armor piercing HE , which would have ruined paint jobs on Dink tanks had they ever been encountered. The only 40s I know of were Army or Marine at the
time.
40 mm came in metal water proof cans, 4 clips of 4 rds. per can.
Ammo was all Navy issue. About half of ammo was Brass the
rest was Cad. Plated steel. The cad/plated is yellow looking too.
All ammo was from WW2. Smokeless powder. Slugs were steel
with copper driving bands. 3 way detonation , contact det
tracer burn out, or air burst. Long range and short range air
burst. They had other types of ammo but this was the everyday
stuff in the Nam. They had Armor piercing HE , which would have ruined paint jobs on Dink tanks had they ever been encountered. The only 40s I know of were Army or Marine at the
time.
