Red Label Synchronized Guns R.A.F. CAL .300 Cartridge, Ball

albayo

albayo

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I recently received a full box of ammo marked with the following information.
CAL .300 CARTRIDGE, BALL
Remington Arms Company, Inc.
Bridgeport, Conn.
RED LABEL
SYNCHRONIZED GUNS R.A.F.​

Stamped 17 MAR 1941
LOT 51
The cases are marked RA 1941 300 Z

Would this be Lend Lease ammo?
Could it be for the P40s or other MGs found on US made aircraft going to the British?
I have axamples of red band around boxes of 30-06 used by guards carrying the P17s.
The synchronized guns, should mean firing through propellers, or does it mean through any MG?

I just found it interesting and would like to find out more about it.
 
You will find those in 303 Brit and 8mm Mauser as well as 30-06.

I have similar boxes of red labled ammunition (20 per box.)

I have only shot one box of each.

They are very accurate and consistent.

The 30-06, worked well in every milurp I tried it in, M1 Garand, 1903a3 and P17. Very accurate, 1 1/2 inches or less at 100 yards.

The 8mm Mauser and 303 Brit, were just as well behaved.

So far as I can find out, you're right, they were made for machine guns, that shot through an airplane's propellors. I guess there isn't much time between the blades and the interruptor gear set up would be something to see.

My ammunition is all loaded by DIL, Montreal, except the 8mm, which is loaded by Winchester.

One of the stories I got at first, was that the boxes were painted that way for issue with the P17s as so many had red painted bands on their fore ends, with black painted cartridge designations.

I went along with that, until the 303Brit and 8mmMauser showed up.
 
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Red Label ammo was very consistent and it was also DATED. Once past the deadline date, Red Label ammunition went into regular stores and could be used for target shooting, coast watch, normal combat and/or whatever.

Originally, it was developed for synchronised aircraft MGs but later (during War Two) it was made available for the free-firing guns on the Spits and Hurris. Canadian-built Hurricane II had TWELVE Brownings in the wings, each one optimised for max rate of fire. They could REALLY chew up the ammo, better than 6 pounds of bullets a second. The AC actually slowed down perceptably when the guns were fired. RCAF 133 and 135 Squadrons had these birds out at Tofino, doing coast watch, and a Canadian-built 133 Hurricane was used in the flying sequences of "The Battle of Britain". At the time they made the movie, there were only TWO airworthy Hurricanes available in the world, so you get to see both if you watch the film.

The original Fokker synchroniser of World War I was mechanical and was based rather heavily on a series of Swiss 1913 patents. The British captured a specimen in working order, more from wrecks, and built copies. From 1916 onward, the Constantinescu HYDROSTATIC synchroniser became the standard and was still in use at least as late as the Viet-Nam War. It owes nothing to any other design and was invented by George Constantinescu, a London-based Rumanian with an interest in hydraulics.

With the Constantinescu synchroniser, a cam plate is bolted to the crankshaft of the radial or inline engine (or, to the crankcase if you are flying a rotary engine). Lugs on this cam plate press aganst a piston in the end of the flexible hydrostatic tube. If there is pressure in the tube, the second piston, at the rear end of the tube, pushed the trigger of the machine-gun.... and off she went. You relieved pressure in the tube by throwing a switch which removed a third plug from the tube; pushing this third plug back into the tube compressed the hydraulic fluid and the thing operated. It had almost no moving parts, could be installed practically anywhere and it was rock reliable..... and it couldn't get out of adjustment. The free-firing guns on the Hurricane II were solenoid-operated, as were other guns firing outside the prop arc.

But even free-firing guns would use Red Label if it was available, simply because it was just made to the highest-possible standard. Clearing a jam on a Browning could be more than a bit difficult at 300 knots and 22,000 feet..... on a single-seater plane!

Red Label today is a thing of the past, but it is also a most palpable reminder of a different, and more than a bit desperate, time.

Hope this helps.
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My uncle served with 135(F) when it was based at Terrace. They were equiped with P40 Kitty Hawks at that time (later in war). He was an air engine fitter. Proud RCAF veteran for more than 50 years. Always carried the Air Force flag when on parade with his Legion branch.
 
Years ago I observed a case of .303 that had the label "Not to be used in SYNCHRONIZED GUNS after March 1946"

Always thought that was interesting!

Scott
 
smellie said:
... and a Canadian-built 133 Hurricane was used in the flying sequences of "The Battle of Britain". At the time they made the movie, there were only TWO airworthy Hurricanes available in the world, so you get to see both if you watch the film.

... It owes nothing to any other design and was invented by George Constantinescu, a London-based Rumanian with an interest in hydraulics.

With the Constantinescu synchroniser, a cam plate is bolted to the crankshaft of the radial or inline engine ...
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Smellie, how do you remember all this stuff? How long has it been stuffed into your head waiting for an opportunity to come out, or are you just making it up? ;-)

... and I get accused of knowing too much UFI, sheesh!
 
@ maple leaf eh:

My Dad was an instrument tech with 133FS from the time it was formed up at Lethbridge, then through their tenure at Boundary Bay and the move to Tofino. He serviced the 133 Hurricane used in the movie, every morning. I was born in Edmonchuk while he was Chief Inspector of instruments and avionics at the rebuild facility at Aircraft Repair, now North West Industries at what is now the downtown airport, rebuilding anything and everthing the Air Force could wreck and putting them all back on the flight line with Zero Hours certificates. This included several hundred P-39s for Ivan, one of which was found in a bog and now is being rebuilt at Tikkakoski. Despite the responsible job, he couldn't get a ration ticket for a teething ring for his new son (me) as they just were not being made in wartime. I was forced to cut my first teeth on Air Force green Scotch tape wrapped aound the butt of an Iver Johnson .32 Short revolver which the Sherriff in Viking had liberated from a bad guy in The Old Days. So I come by it honestly, you could say.

Dad maintained his interest in aviation and when the CATP Museum was started at Brandon, just 47 miles from here, he worked there after retirement, rebuilding all the junk that he had serviced when it was new. The last project he did was a rebuild on their Mark I Link Trainer, the only operational Mark I Link in the world. He had shortly before been handed a death sentence by his doctor (misdiagnosis! They were treating for arthitis instad of cancer.) when the last 133 Hurricane burned in Ontario in that museum fire. I never saw a man who looked so completely LOST as he did as he watched that airplane burn. It had been rebuilt before the movie by Bod Diemert (who is a friend) down at Carman. The last Christmas Dad was living, his gift to me was a complete RCAF WW2 Armourer's Course.

So there you have it. I was brought up with this stuff and, by now, I'm all ready for World War Two! I also have a couple of degrees and did most of a Master's in military history, but U of M couldn't assemble a team to grade my (approved) thesis on the evolution of smallarms systems between Waterloo and Second Ypres..... and the Post Office went out on strike, so that killed my PhD scholarship because they burned truckloads of First Class Mail after the strike..... and my application was in it. Oh well, it was too late anyway. Thank you, PSAC! So I got a job teaching school out on Fogo Island, then into the newspaper racket: 25 years of experience in 8 years of 105-hour weeks. And driving cab. And wirelining in the Oil Patch. And resurrecting old oil wells. Now the Gummint sends me a cheque every month just so long as I promise not to die on them. Neat! DEFINITELY better than freezing your arse off, soaked to the skin in sal####er and crude oil, out on a service rig in 35 below.... with a wind!

Hope this answers a couple of questions.

Take care, all..... and be sure to enjoy 2012!
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maple_leaf_eh said:
Smellie, how do you remember all this stuff? How long has it been stuffed into your head waiting for an opportunity to come out, or are you just making it up? ;-)

... and I get accused of knowing too much UFI, sheesh!
Click to expand...

As SMELLIE lives only about 20 miles from me, and as I usually drop in for a Coffee about once a week, I can confirm that between those ears, and behind that beard, is a wealth of information.

SMELLIE has been a Newspaper Editor. He Majored in History at University. He has been to the Pattern Room in England, (and while there, wrote a Manual for the 1899 Maxim Machine Gun.) In "Cartridges of the World", his name is acknowledged for contributing information.

The person who really taught him to shoot was Bill (Bisley) Brown, a five time member and three times Captain of the Canadian Bisley Rifle Team, and they shot regularly together.

Not to mention a Collection that includes a 1939 Armaguerra Italian semi-automatic, (50 made), that was a candidate to replace the Carcano, a SMLE with Aluminium furniture instead of wood, (10 made,) and a taper bored No.1 Mark III SMLE rifle, (the only known other one is in the Pattern Room.)

If you want to debate Historical or Obscure Facts with SMELLIE, I will give you a bit of advice. DO NOT BET MONEY ON IT. YOU WILL LOSE. Thus you will go away more knowledgeable, but you wallet will be a bit lighter.

Oh, Crap! Now I've done it. If SMELLIE reads this post, he will be wearing that Superman T-shirt the next time I drop in for Coffee.:)
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I was forced to cut my first teeth on Air Force green Scotch tape wrapped aound the butt of an Iver Johnson .32 Short revolver which the Sherriff in Viking had liberated from a bad guy in The Old Days.
Click to expand...

Smellie, that may be the single most awesome thing I've ever seen.
 
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