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303 Mk BVI

Andysarmoury

Andysarmoury

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Hi, Just thought i would show this as i found this several years ago when working on Orfordness it dose not have any head stamp just a blue Annulus and was wondering has any body got any ideas as who could have made them at the time as these were tested on the island in 1940.
Andy
 

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Hi Andy,

These B Mk VI with no headstamp are the very early ones, and were probably still at the semi-experimental stage. So likely that this one was made by Royal Laboratory at Woolwich, or possibly by Radway Green. The case may have a makers mark inside, between the 2 flash-holes, if you can see it.

Roger.
 
Hi Roger,thanks for that it must be one of the two, i new it must be early and there is nothing inside its as clean as a whistle.
Cheers
Andy
 
B Mark VI

Scrape the very point of the bullet with your thumb nail. If it is an early or experimental B.VI you will see that the tip has a very small hole in the envelope and that it is filled with solder.

Considerable numbers of the early production B VI were not headstamped to preserve security if the Germans recovered any from shot down aircraft. Similarly, the early B Mark VIIs were loaded in B.VI cases for the same reason.

Regards
TonyE
 
Hi Tony, i have just checked and it has the hole covered with solder on the tip so an early one many thanks.
Cheers
Andy
 
B.vi

The hole in the nose was originally designed to improve sensitivity and ensure ignition of the SR365 filling. However, it was discovered that the SR365 used to fill these early examples had been in store for some time and had lost sensitivity. When filled with newly made SR365 the bullet did not need the nose weakened, and since manufacture of the solder type was very fiddly the simpler envelope was adopted as the Pattern B bullet.

Interestingly, the trials of the two types was carried out at Orford Ness in 1940, so your round may come from this time.

There seems also to have been another trial type of bullet with a slight groove about 2mm behind the point where the steel inner sleeve abutts the envelope. Again this was done to improve sensitivity.

Regards
TonyE
 
Many thanks Tony for your write up, as i live about 5 miles away from Orfordness i will have to have another look around when i can.
Thanks again
Andy
 
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