Fig. 25

Three types of German Small Arms bullet are shown in Fig. 25. These consist of a:

A complete round consists of a cartridge case, percussion cap, propellant charge and bullet. The cartridge case may be either drawn from sheet brass (72 percent. copper and 28 percent. zinc) or from sheet steel, copper plated on both sides. The brass case is stamped S* on the base, the steel case with an "S" only.

Fig. 25

The case is bottle shaped; it is grooved at the base and coned slightly externally to fa-cilitate extraction. A cap chamber is formed in the base of the case and connected by flash channels to the interior. In the centre of the chamber an anvil is formed on which the cap composition is fired by the striker.

The percussion cap may be either No. 88 or No. 30. The No. 88 consists of a brass deto-nator containing detonating composition and a covering cap of double sided zinc-plated lead foil. The detonating composition is put into the detonator dry and protected from damp and flaking by the cap which is lacquered on the inside. The inside of the detona-tor is also lacquered to the level of the detonating composition.

The No. 30 cap is generally similar to the No. 88 differing in having certain components which, in the case of the No. 88 cause severe erosion, replaced by others without these disadvantages.

The base of the case is stamped with the Firm's mark, e.g., P = Polte, the mark of the case, e.g., S*, the delivery number, e.g., 6 = delivery 6 and the year of manufacture, e.g., 31 = 1931.

The propellant charge in the cartridges here described consists of nitrocellulose in black-ish, square graphite treated flakes of about 0.25 mm thick and 1.2 to 1.5 mm long with smooth cut surfaces.

The bullet for the sS cartridge is of 7.9 mm calibre and is formed with a groove at the base by means of which it is secured in the cartridge case. It consist of a bullet enve-lope into which the core is pressed. The envelope is drawn from ongot steel, plated with tombax and the core is pressed from hard lead. The base is streamlined. This bullet is the same for rifle, carbine or machine gun.

The SmK cartridge differs from the above in the bullet being somewhat longer. It con-tains a steel core around which there is a thin lead jacket. It is specially designed for ar-mour piercing.

The SmK L'spur cartridge differs from the SmK in having a tracer bullet. The core is shor-ter than the SmK and has a case containing the tracer composition placed behind it. The composition burns green and red or yellow. The trajectory is marked by the burning of the tracer composition and can be seen up to 900 metres. It is used chiefly for A.A.

Marking. – To protect the detonating composition and the propellant from damp the an-nulus of the cap is lacquered. The colour of the lacquer is Green for sS cartridge and Red for SmK or SmK L'spur cartridge. In addition the point of the tracer bullet SmK L'spur is blackended for a distance of 10 mm from the tip.

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3

20

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A cartridge box filled with about 1,500 rounds weighs about 92.5 lbs.