.50 Cal Incendiary Shipping Crate

[silverplate]

Recently added this shipping crate to my collection of ordnance materials and was wondering if anyone has seen the 10 round incendiary cartons that would have been found in it. I have seen most of the .30 caliber 20 round cartons, and even found some .50 caliber dummy cartons, but the .50 caliber cartons have been elusive.

[silverplate]

Here's a picture of one of my .30 caliber incendiary cartons, and one of my .50 caliber dummy cartons. I assume the .50 caliber incendiary cartons would have similar text and colors to the .30 caliber, but multiple web searches have turned up nothing. I was hoping one of the forum members might have a photo to share. Thanks in advance. Charlie

[Taber10]

Sorry, I don't have a picture, and probably couldn't post it anyway as I'm not too good with computers. But I wanted to mention that on both the cardboard inner boxes and the crates that Cal. 50 both the color codes and any stenciling, like the outlines of linked cartridges are diagonal, where the Cal .30 markings are Vertical. Made identification easier under low light, and/or stressful conditions.

[Charlie Flick]

Very cool crate.

 

I took a quick look in Woodin & Hackley to see what they said on the .50 M1 Incendiary. It appears to not be WW2 but rather from the 1950's. That lot number seems to correspondend to that time frame from what I could see in a quick scan of the .50 BMG sections in Volumes 2 and 3. The book did not show a pic of the cartons.

 

Regards,

Charlie

[silverplate]

Thanks for the replies gents. I wasn't sure if the crate was WW2 or not, since the first number is hard to read. But, it was too cool to pass up.

 

I did find a photo on the net, although it was tracer, not incendiary. That's a big box!

 

Des Moines only produced rounds from 1942-1945, so now I at least know what to look for.