Q about rifle ammo

[DieFledermaus]

This was found by a former officer in the 101st Airborne amongst his personal papers. This was issued prior to D-Day:

Tentative Plan of Basic Ammunition Loads

MI- 30-06 rifle: Rounds per weapon: 136, jumped on individual. (128 in Air Corps pockets, 4 clips per pocket), 1-8 rnd. clip in rifle, hand, or jumpsuit pocket (55% ball, 40% AP, 5% tracer.) Rifle belt and one bandolier may be used in lieu of the above. 60 Riflemen per company will jump with 1 belt of LMG ammunition (250 rounds); this may be used in M-1 rifles if the situation warrants.

Ball would refer to the lead projectile encased in metal (copper I think in those days.) AP would refer to Anti-Personnel, I assume. But what would the difference be between ball ammo and anti-personnel ammo?

Also, it says this about grenade rations:

'03 Grenades: 10, jumped on individual 5 in each of 2 M6 carrying bags (6 fragmentation, 4 A.T.)

Hand Grenades: 4, Jumped on individual. 4 Grenades in jumpsuit pockets (if M6 carrying bag is used, 6 can be carried.)

I would assume the "Hand Grenade" would be the well-known "pineapple" variety. So what exactly was an '03 grenade?

 

[Jaesperson]

AP most likely means armor piercing as the usual "ball" is already quite effective against humans.
i think they carried that much ammo because they were paratroopers who wouldnt get that much of a resupply until they rejoined with the usual infantry troops if that

 

[KH Reese]

AP= armor piercing.
The '03 grenades are most likely rifle grenades since they used the Springfield 03 bolt action to launch them. The Garand could do it too but it was easier/safer to have a weapon dedicated to launching genades.

 

[{YBBS}Sage]

I agree with the above.. mostly. I believe they were rifle grenades. If they were, then they must have had some blanks in the bags with them.

M1 Garand will launch grenades reliably and safely. It's a tough rifle.

I really doubt they were jumping with rifles loaded. There's no way I know of to put a clip into a Garand without chambering a round. Parachuting with a round chambered would probably be a Bad Idea.

 

[DieFledermaus]

Doh!

Yes of course. Thanks. No brain yesterday when I first read that. Thanks.

 

[DAT]

The military still calls small caliber ammunition "ball" to this day. The nomeclature for say 5.56 will be "5.56 Ball M855". An old throwback (still used) to the days of when the ammunition was actually a lead ball.

 

[Ska Wars]

I woulda thought they'd jump with more ammo really. I mean, from what I've read the standard British infantry man carried 90 rounds for his rifle and generally they were supplied quite often and it was a bolt action rifle not a semi-auto like the Garand.

Meh, but what do I know

 

[{YBBS}Sage]

That's just doctrine not catching up with the times... Kind of like Soviet troops in WWII always having bayonets fixed.

Edit: Oh, yeah. Also, there's the weight consideration. .30 cal ammo weighs about 10 lbs per 100 rounds. Give or take... You can only drop so much weight on a soldier's parachute before hit goes "splat" when he hits the ground. It's easier to airdrop more later than it is to carry a ton of crap down with you, and if you're dropping airborne in, it's fairly safe to assume the skies are friendly.

Nowadays, even with rifles that are barely more than semi-auto (three shot burst isn't the same), individual troops are carrying almost as much ammo as a WWII squad. In WWII, the speed of war picked up a lot. I'd bet a lot of the paras were saying "WTF! We didn't bring enough ammo!!" when they hit the ground.

Soviet troops carried 60 rounds in their belt pouches. The Germans would be at 90. Dunno if they carried more in their packs or not. German paras did carry more ammo, though.

 

[DAT]

Fallschirmjagers (german para's) never jumped with their weapons or ammo. They were dropped with them in squad size in canisters. Take a look at the Battle of Crete where they suffered high casualties due to this and other nuances of early Drops in the early part of the war.

 

[{YBBS}Sage]

Really? Hell with that! Jumping into a war zone without a gun = not a good idea.

 

[Helmi]

Fallschirmjagers (german para's) never jumped with their weapons or ammo. They were dropped with them in squad size in canisters. Take a look at the Battle of Crete where they suffered high casualties due to this and other nuances of early Drops in the early part of the war.

While this is true, I'm pretty sure the doctrine was changed pretty quickly after the Pyrrhic victory of Operation Merkur.

Not that there have been any larger airborne operations after that point, but still.

At least, I'd rather do this than the soviet tactic of jumping off the planes wings into the snow without any chute...