Development of British cannon ammuniation during WW2

"Jukka O. Kauppinen" wrote in message ...

So RAF stopped using ball ammo during 1942.
And there was no true AP ammo in use before SAPI?

Interesting. I wonder, they had Hurricane II with 4x20 mm. I presume
this plane was used in ground attack missions with the bombload. Those
cannons were still loaded with HE/HEI/BALL ammo for strafing missions? I
presume they weren't much effective against German armour?

Several different AP rounds were developed and tested in the UK, but
as far as I can tell they were all unsatisfactory. The Mk 1 and Mk 2
were traditional solid shot and proved ineffective when tested against
tanks, so weren't generally issued. The Mk 3 was the APCR. There was a
more traditional Mk 4, which came out in 1944, but I don't know if
that saw any use; I have no record that it did.

The RAF seemed to find that the ball and SAPI rounds were more than
adequate against aircraft, and the 20mm was too small to do much
damage to tanks. So they concentrated on the 40mm for anti-tank use
until they decided that wasn't good enough either, and went to RPs
instead.

Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk
Discussion forum at: http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/

Don't know, but I just found this site; might be helpful.
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/


"Jukka O. Kauppinen" wrote in
message ...

What was the timetable for British development for their 20 mm cannon
ammuniation during WW2?

I'm aware that RAF tried to install first cannons to Spit Is but this
was initially a failure. Early Spit V models were introduced with 60
round supply to the Hispanos, later with 120 rounds per gun. Some of the
documents I've seen showed, that RAF had severe problems in 1941 maybe
even during 1942 with HE ammo, which had tendency to explode in the
barrel. Until HE was perfected (42?) I presume the cannons primarily
used the Ball ammuniation?

What is the actual timetable for introduction of various British cannon
ammuniation types for squadron service? Ball from the start, AP, HE, API
etc later?

jok