Wooden Bullets

[news]

Just watched an episode of Color of War and they read a letter from a
Combat Engineer who was cleaning up dead horses, cows and Germans after
D-Day and said some of the soldiers had wooden bullets in their machine
gun belts...thinking that the idea was to cause more labor intensive
injuries for the docs to deal with.

Any truth to that?

[Rich]

Post by news
Any truth to that?

---- Long Lines

No. Platzpatronen were used to facilitate chambering when using
blank rounds in maneuvers. Most were hollow and disintegrated
when fired, but some appear to have been of more solid construction
and so if inadvertently used could have caused injuries, but
unlikely death. German field manuals warned against their use
in maneuvers at less than 50 meters due to the possibility of
injury, but there was never an intent to use them in combat,
except accidentally, given that they were so inferior to real
bullets.

The notion that it was some nefarious Nazi plot refuses to die.

---- Long Lines

[GFH]

Post by Rich

Post by news
Any truth to that?

---- Long Lines
No. Platzpatronen were used to facilitate chambering when using
blank rounds in maneuvers. Most were hollow and disintegrated
when fired, but some appear to have been of more solid construction
and so if inadvertently used could have caused injuries, but
unlikely death. German field manuals warned against their use
in maneuvers at less than 50 meters due to the possibility of
injury, but there was never an intent to use them in combat,
except accidentally, given that they were so inferior to real
bullets.
The notion that it was some nefarious Nazi plot refuses to die.

I had some that my father brought back from
Europe during WWII. He told me that they were
used to fire rifle grenades. But he was in the
Navy, so ???

GFH

[Rich]

Post by GFH

Post by Rich

Post by news
Any truth to that?

---- Long Lines
No. Platzpatronen were used to facilitate chambering when using
blank rounds in maneuvers. Most were hollow and disintegrated
when fired, but some appear to have been of more solid construction
and so if inadvertently used could have caused injuries, but
unlikely death. German field manuals warned against their use
in maneuvers at less than 50 meters due to the possibility of
injury, but there was never an intent to use them in combat,
except accidentally, given that they were so inferior to real
bullets.
The notion that it was some nefarious Nazi plot refuses to die.

I had some that my father brought back from
Europe during WWII. He told me that they were
used to fire rifle grenades. But he was in the
Navy, so ???
GFH

The solid wood cartridge was used with the spigot-type large
AT rifle grenade launcher, but it was packed individually with
each grenade, so would not have been found in link belts and
it would have been difficult to confuse it with a real bullet.
Other rifles grenades used a crimped-end blank cartridge.

[Chris Morton]

Post by news
Just watched an episode of Color of War and they read a letter from a
Combat Engineer who was cleaning up dead horses, cows and Germans after
D-Day and said some of the soldiers had wooden bullets in their machine
gun belts...thinking that the idea was to cause more labor intensive
injuries for the docs to deal with.
Any truth to that?

Rifle rounds with wooden bullets are generally used for launching rifle
grenades. They feed better through a magazine, and the bullet breaks up in the
base of the grenade.

It's entirely possible that some ended up in machine gun belts, either
inadvertently, or because somebody thought (erroneously) that they'd somehow be
more "deadly".

[GFH]

Post by Chris Morton

Post by news
Just watched an episode of Color of War and they read a letter from a
Combat Engineer who was cleaning up dead horses, cows and Germans after
D-Day and said some of the soldiers had wooden bullets in their machine
gun belts...thinking that the idea was to cause more labor intensive
injuries for the docs to deal with.
Any truth to that?

Rifle rounds with wooden bullets are generally used for launching rifle
grenades. They feed better through a magazine, and the bullet breaks up in the
base of the grenade.
It's entirely possible that some ended up in machine gun belts, either
inadvertently, or because somebody thought (erroneously) that they'd somehow be
more "deadly".

Would a wood-bullet rife round have enough
of a charge to operate a machine gun? I
tend to doubt it.

GFH

[Chris Morton]

Post by GFH
Would a wood-bullet rife round have enough
of a charge to operate a machine gun? I
tend to doubt it.

Depends upon the machinegun.

I also vaguely recall non-grenade launching blanks having wooden
bullets. A muzzle device would shatter the bullet to prevent it from
traveling far in one piece.

I suspect that a gun with a muzzle booster of some type might allow
the action to work just well enough to feed a wooden bulleted round.

[Jim H.]

On Monday, March 24, 2014 12:57:08 PM UTC-4, Chris Morton wrote:
....

Post by Chris Morton
Depends upon the machinegun.
I also vaguely recall non-grenade launching blanks having wooden
bullets. A muzzle device would shatter the bullet to prevent it from
traveling far in one piece.
I suspect that a gun with a muzzle booster of some type might allow
the action to work just well enough to feed a wooden bulleted round.

I have a positive memory of seeing a mention of wooden bullets
in Chinese burp guns in a Korean War memoir. But my memory is failing
me on what book, or the exact context it was mentioned in. I think it
was something about the battles around Chosin Reservoir, and it may
have been mentioned as scuttlebutt or rumor.

Jim H.

[Phil McGregor]

Post by Jim H.
I have a positive memory of seeing a mention of wooden bullets
in Chinese burp guns in a Korean War memoir. But my memory is failing
me on what book, or the exact context it was mentioned in. I think it
was something about the battles around Chosin Reservoir, and it may
have been mentioned as scuttlebutt or rumor.

This mentions them being used in Vickers MGs by Aussie troops ...

http://www.koreanwaronline.com/history/oz/kr/chapter18.htm

... though it really doesn't explain their provenance or reason for existing, merely how they were used by the soldiers in that particular
instance.

However, read ...

https://suite101.com/a/wooden-bullets-used-in-peace-and-war-a141786

... for some further explanation about them (the Commonwealth ones).

Phil