Manufacturing Marks of WWII
© Jerry Penry
The Browning M2 machine gun was the most widely used weapon on the American bomber and fighter planes of WWII. Due to the high demand of ammunition for this gun, many companies began producing the .50 caliber round to keep the supply available.
BROWNING M2 MACHINE GUN
Approximate Actual Size.The .50 caliber round is 5.5" (140mm) long with seated bullet. The casing alone is just under 4" (100mm) long. The primer end of the casing where the headstamp is located is 0.75" (19mm) diameter. The bullet is typically 2.25" (55mm) long with 0.75" (19mm) seated into the casing. The bullet diameter is 0.50".
Remington Arms 1942 headstamps.
Known manufacturers and headstamp codes of companies producing .50 caliber ammunition during WWII.FA = Frankford Arsenal - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
DM = Des Moines Ordnance Plant - Ankeny, Iowa.
KS = Kelly Springfield, Allegany Ordnance Plant - Cumberland, Maryland.
LC = Lake City Army Ammunition Plant - Independence, Missouri.
LM = Lowell Ordnance Plant - Lowell, Massachusetts.
M = Milwaukee Ordnance Plant - Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
RA = Remington Arms - Bridgeport, Connecticut.
SL = St. Louis Ordnance Plant - St. Louis, Missouri.
TW = Twin Cities Ordnance Plant - Minneapolis, Minnesota.
U = Utah Ordnance Plant - Salt Lake City, Utah.
UT = Utah Ordnance Plant - Salt Lake City, Utah.
WRA = Winchester Repeating Arms - New Haven, Connecticut.
--------------
The headstamps shown below do not reflect all of the .50 caliber casings that were made during WWII.
If you have additional information or would like to contribute a photo of a headstamp, please contact me. Headstamp images are approximately 2.3x actual size.
Des Moines Ordnance Plant
Operated by the U. S. Rubber Company from 1941-45.
1942
1943a 1943b 1943c
1944a 1944b 1944c
1945a 1945b
Frankford Arsenal
Operated as a major ammunition manufacturing plant from 1816 - 1977.
1941 1941 1942
(Dummy)
1943 1943 1944 1944
(Dummy) (Dummy)
Kelly Springfield, Allegany Ordnance Plant
Operated by the Kelly Springfield Tire Company in 1943-44.
1942 1943
Lake City Army Ammunition Plant
Established by Remington Arms in 1941 to manufacture and test small caliber ammunition for the U.S. Army.
1941 1942 1943a 1943b
1944a 1944b
1945Note: The 43b is what I believe is from a broken headstamp die. If a manufacturing company does exist with the "IC" initials, please let me know.
Lowell Ordnance Plant
A small arms plant that operated under contract from the
Remington Arms Company between 1942 and 1943.
1942 1943
Milwaukee Ordnance Plant
Operated by the U. S. Rubber Company from 1942-43.
1942 1943a 1943b
Remington Arms
Founded in 1816, this company is the oldest in the United States which still makes its
original product, and is the oldest continuously operating manufacturer in North America.
1942
St. Louis Ordnance Plant
Operated by the Western Cartridge Company from 1941-45.
This plant manufactured 6.7 billion .30 and .50 cartridges for the War.
1942a 1942b 1943 1944 1945
Twin Cities Ordnance Plant
Operated by the Federal Cartridge Company from 1941-45.
This company produced .30, .45, and .50 caliber ammunition.
1942a 1942b
1943a 1943b 1943c
1944
1942
(Broken Die)
Utah Ordnance Plant
Operated by the Remington Arms Company.
1942 1943 1944?
Winchester Repeating Arms
1943-------------
Pre-WWII Headstamps
1936-------------
Regular M2 casing (top) shown with a short casing.
The short casing is believed to have been used as a tracer for a larger artillery gun.
LINKS
An important aspect of the .50 caliber round was the steel link joining adjacent casings together. As with the brass casings, there were probably several different manufacturers producing the links in mass quantities during WWII. Unlike the casings which have the date and manufacture code for the headstamp, the links found so far are either blank or have a two-letter or letter-number code on them.
One problem with categorizing the links by code is determining if they were actually manufactured during WWII. The link codes in the photos below were found on gunnery ranges in Nebraska used only during WWII. Finding steel links in good condition is difficult because they are often completely corroded depending upon the soil in which they are found.
The metal flats for the links were pressed out of hardened high-tensile spring steel. An attempt was made to flatten a link to show the shape before the curls were made. After a strong application of force, a piece of the curl snapped off. They cannot be flattened out. A representation of a flattened link is created in the diagram below. The steel used for the links is slightly less than 1/16" thick. The flattened length is 5 1/4" and the width is 1 7/16" on the area that slips over the casing.
If anyone has additional information on links, such as the WWII manufacturers, design specifications, or the meaning of the codes, please contact me.
Actual size of a flattened link before curling.
Known WWII Link Codes
F 36 HQ PC
PF PK PL
Wikipedia Website
(.50 Caliber Shell)
Wikipedia Website
(.50 Caliber Gun)
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