Colour markings of German aircraft gun ammunition 1939-1945

or

And now paint it stripy!

As we were already dealing with colour markings of German aircraft bombs of the WW2, as well heavy Flak ammunition (in Polish only), it's probably time for another assortment of Luftwaffe ammunition, namely projectiles for aircraft guns - cannons and heavy machine guns.

Situation is generally similar to the Flak ammunition here - the whole projectile is painted with a colour corresponding to its type, but - as opposed to anti-aircraft shells - there are many additional markings in form of colour rings, denoting additional features of the ammunition.

Also, general colour scheme of aircraft gun projectiles looked like this:

• High explosive (Sprgr.) - yellow;
  
• Incendiary (Brgr.) - blue;
• Armour piercing (Pzgr.) - black;
• Armour piercing composite rigid (H-Pzgr.) - black with a white nose;
  
• Practice (Üb.) - gray.
  

It also has to be noted here that nose colour of APCR projectiles was described as aluminium in 1942, not white. But more to the point...

It is a little bit more complicated in case of projectiles combining a couple of functions, e.g. armour piercing incendiaries. Their colour scheme was made of basic body colour (e.g. denoting HE or AP projectile) supplemented with a colour ring located in its forward part, just in front of the bourelet, corresponding to the additional function - e.g. incendiary.

• Projectiles with additional explosive effect (e.g. AP with a HE charge) - yellow ring;
• Projectiles with additional incendiary effect (e.g. AP incendiaries) - blue ring.

Additional colour markings, referring to projectile variants, were following:

 

• Projectiles with a day tracer (L'spur) - bright red ring in front of the driving band;
• Projectiles with a night tracer (Gl'spur) - dark red ring in front of the driving band;
• Projectiles with a self-destructor (m. Zerl.) - green ring in the forward part of the body, in front of the bourelet (or at the base of the fuse).

Additional letters coul be painted at the body, at two opposite sides, more precisely describing a variant of the projectile - as M, MX, Ph, E...

So is it simple or complicated? Let's take a look at a couple of examples, for simplicity and uniformity restricted in majority of the cases to the 2 cm calibre - but the same rules applied to all projectiles in calibres from 13 mm to 3,7 cm, while in calibres 5 cm and 7,5 cm, rather exotic in aviation, there were sometimes - for some reason - exceptions. So, in practice it looked like this:

In the drawing above we can see, left to right:

• 2 cm Sprgr. L'spur m. Zerl. - deciphering this complicated but reach in content abbreviation, 2 cm high explosive projectile (Sprgr. - Sprenggranat) with a tracer (L'spur - Lichtspur) and self-destructor (m. Zerl. - mit Zerleger). Appropriately to these functions the projectile is painted yellow (HE) with a green ring in its forward part (self-destructor) and a bright red ring in front of the driving band (tracer). The fuse is in natural metal colour.
• 2 cm M-Gesch. o. Zerl. - demolition projectile (M-Gesch. - Minengeschoss) without a self-destructor (o. Zerl. - ohne Zerleger). Painted yellow overall, with an additional marking of a demolition projectile in form of a black letter M at the body. Such projectiles, literally "mines", had exceptionally thin walls (so thin that sometimes they had to be reinforced with an internal insert under the driving band) and very high HE capacity, what resulted in high explosion force. Projectiles of this type in 2 cm calibre had no tracers due to being maximally filled with an explosive charge - as opposed to bigger ones, even of 3 cm calibre, which already had tracers. The name Minengeschoss was derived from high power demolition projectiles of the 19th century  intended for destroying fortifications - and thus called mine projectiles.
  
• 2 cm M-Gesch. m. Zerl. - demolition projectile, "mine", with a self-destructor. Thus painted yellow with a black letter M and a green ring (self-destructor) at the base of the fuse.
• 2 cm Brgr. L'spur m. Zerl. - incendiary projectile (Brgr. - Brandgranat), with a tracer and a self-destructor. As an incendiary - painted blue overall, with a green ring at the base of the fuse (self-destructor) and a bright red ring in front of the driving band (tracer).
  
• 2 cm Brgr. 44 o. Zerl. - incendiary projectile without a self-destructor - known to us already from the post about the AZ 9501 hydrodynamic fuse. Pure incendiary, without other features - so painted blue overall.
  

What's interesting, the 2 cm Brsprgr. L'spur m. Zerl., a splinter-incendiary projectile (2 cm Brandsprenggranat Lichtspur mit Zerleger) apparently looked exactly the same as the 2 cm Sprgr. L'spur m. Zerl. shown above - for some reason it did not have a blue ring denoting incendiary effect painted at its forward part. But, on the other hand, as opposed to printed manuals of the era, one can encounter photos of preserved yellow 2 cm shells with blue rings - so maybe there was some diversity in this aspect.

Nose fuses were left, as was already mentioned, in natural metal colour, with an exception of the tropical ammunition (Tropenmunition) and the so-called unified ammunition (Einheitsmunition) intended for use in all climate zones - in this case nose fuses (or dummy nose fuses) were painted in the basic projectile body colour, i.e. yellow, blue or grey. Additionally, the neck of the cartridge case and the primer were sealed with red lacquer. Tropical ammunition was additionally marked with letters Tp on the body, white on AP projectiles, black on other types.

•  2 cm Sprgr. L'spur (Tp) m. Zerl. - 2 cm high explosive projectile with a tracer and a self-destructor, known tu us already from the previous drawing, this time in a tropical variant (Tp - Tropenmunition). Carrying standard colours - yellow body (HE projectile), green ring at the base of the fuse (self-destructor) and bright red ring adjacent to the driving band (tracer), additionally it's distinguished with the fuse painted in the basic body colour (yellow in this case) and black letters Tp on the body.
  
• 2 cm Brsprgr. Gl'spur m. Zerl. - 2 cm high explosive incendiary projectile, already mentioned above, with a night tracer (Gl'spur - Glimmspur) burning less brightly than a day tracer and a self-destructor, in the unified variant (Einheitsmunition). The projectile is painted yellow (HE) together with the fuse, marked with a green ring behind the fuse (self-destructor) and a dark red ring in front of the driving band (night tracer). Note - as was already pointed out, incendiary function of this particular projectile is not marked with a blue ring on the body, although one cannot be sure if it was a standard feature. 
• 2 cm Brgr. L'spur m. Zerl. - incendiary projectile with a tracer and a self-destructor, already presented above, here shown in the unified variant (Einheitsmunition). Marking is also similar, painted blue overall just together with the fuse, with a green ring at the base of the fuse (self-destructor) and a bright red ring in front of the driving band (tracer).
  

And now two more interesting pieces of demolition projectiles:

• 2 cm M-Gesch. X m. Zerl. - demolition projectile X with a self-destructor, looking like an absurdally stretched 2 cm M-Gesch. with its rear part (normally hidden inside the case) lenghtened so, that the overall length reached 99.2 mm (as compared with 83.1 mm of a regular demolition projectile), not particularly successful - it seems, its excessive length caused stabilisation problems. As a demolition projectile with a self-destructor (built into the ZZ 1509 fuse), it carried the same colour scheme as the 2 cm M-Gesch. m. Zerl. - yellow overall (HE) with a green ring at the base of the fuse (self-destructor), but this time was distinguished with black letters MX on the body.
• 3 cm M-Brgr. 108 m. Zerl. - something more inriguing at last, a bigger calibre demolition-incendiary projectile (M-Brgr. - Minen-Brandgranat) for the MK 108 El cannon (number 108), with a self-destructor. As such, painted yellow (HE), with its double function indicated by two rings at the base of the fuse - green (self-destructor) and blue (incendiary), plus a black letter M for a demolition projectile. This projectile, intended as an unified ammunition eventually replacing demolition and incendiary projectiles, had pretty complex and interesting internal layout - its forward part (approximately just over a half of its length) was filled with a conventional HE demolition charge, while the rear part housed a kind of a cylindrical incendiary pellet filled with an incendiary composition, with a number of holes in the wall. The ZZ 1589 B impact fuse was combined with a self-destructor, while a VC 70 primer, used e.g. in other 3 cm demolition projectiles, assured delayed fuse action on impact.

And yet a short note on self-destructors (if any were present). Generally two kinds were used - tracer projectiles had self-destructors connected with the tracer element, which after burning out - similarly to a delay train - ignited a self-destruction charge located at the rear of the projectile. In case of projectiles without tracers, the self-destructor was built into the main fuse, which, due to decreasing rotation speed of the projectile in flight, eventually released a spring loaded firing pin, held in place by centrifugal elements, into a percussion primer - as for example in ZZ 1505 or ZZ 1506 fuses. Note, such fuses were designated as ZZ (Zerlegezünder - self-destructing fuse).

Let's deal with armour piercing projectiles now,  rather attractive in appearance due to their contrastive colours.

In the drawing we can see, left to right::

• 2 cm Pzgr. o. Zerl. - armour piercing projectile (Pzgr. - Panzergranat) without a self-destructor. In spite of its "grenade" name, it admittedly had a thick walled body, but without a fuse or a HE charge - filled with pressstoff and closed with a plug at the rear. Thus painted black overall.
  
• 2 cm Pzsprgr. o. Zerl. - armour piercing high explosive projectile (Pzsprgr - Panzersprenggranat) without a self-destructor, it differed from the AP projectile described above with presence of a HE charge with a base fuse - and its explosive feature is marked with a yellow ring (high explosive) at the base of the ogival section of the body.
  
• 2 cm Pzbrgr. (Phosphor) o. Zerl. - armour piercing incediary projectile (Pzbrgr. - Panzerbrandgranat) without a self-destructor, with a charge of phosphorous - as an armour piercing projectile painted back, and its incendiary feature is marked with a blue ring on the body (incendiary projectile) and while letters Ph (Phosphor, phosphorous). What's interesting, it did not have a fuse, it was just filled with phosphorous and closed with a screwed in plug at the rear.
• 2 cm Pzbrgr. (Elektron) o. Zerl. - armour piercing incendiary projectile without a self-destructor, with electron charge - marked, similarly to the predecessor, with a blue ring, but this time with a white letter E (electron) on the body. The projectile had a pretty unusual construction, it was equipped - as an AP - with a JZ 1527 graze fuse, which wasn't a base fuse but was located deep inside, in the forward part of the body; incendiary charge of electron was placed behind the fuse and the body was closed with a plug at the rear end.
  
• 2 cm Pzsprgr. L'spur o. Zerl. - armour piercing projectile with a tracer, without a self-destructor - appropriately marked with a yellow ring in front denoting, as we already know, presence of a HE charge and bright red ring adjacent to the driving band - a tracer.
  
• 2 cm Pzsprgr. Gl'spur m. Zerl. - armour piercing high explosive projectile with a night tracer (Gl'spur - Glimmspur) and a self-destructor. It is marked with two rings at the forward part - yellow (HE charge) and green (self-destructor), as well as a dark red ring in front of the driving band, denoting a night tracer (burning less brightly than a day tracer). Self-destructor was pretty unusual in this case, built into the BdZ 1516 base fuse and coupled with the tracer - after the tracer had burnt out, the primer was shot into the firing pin located in the forward part of the fuse.
  

And now two bigger examples of armour piercing projectiles of 3 cm calibre (additionally, on the left hand side, the 2 cm Pzgr. o. Zerl., already known to us, shown just for size comparison), presenting yet another marking variants.

 

•  3 cm H-Pzgr. L'spur o. Zerl. - armour piercing composite rigid projectile, with an armour piercing core  (H-Pzgr. - Hartkern-Panzergranat) with a tracer, without a self-destructor. Painted traditionally black, with white forward part and a bright red ring in front of the driving band denoting a tracer. The projectile contained inside just an ogival tungsten core, without a HE charge.
  
• 3 cm Pzbrsprgr. L'spur o. Zerl. - a pretty sophisticated combination, armour piercing high explosive incendiary projectile (Pzbrsprgr - Panzerbrandsprenggranat) with a tracer, without a self-destructor. The body colour is black,  typical for an AP,  while both additional functions are marked with two appropriate rings at the forward part - yellow (HE) and blue (incendiary). Plus an usual bright red ring at the rear, denoting a tracer.

And finally at the end - the least interesting in our set practice projectiles, painted - as mentioned above - gray.

 

 

 In the drawing above we can see:

• 2 cm Sprgr. Üb. o. Zerl. - practice high explosive projectile (Sprgr. Üb.- Sprenggranat Übungs) without a self-destructor, made as a single piece body of a size of a complete shell with a fuse, empty inside and closed with a pressed plug at the rear. Painted grey overall, with three longitudinal arrows stamped at the body (spaced evenly 120 degrees apart), specific for blind practice projectiles not containing any explosives and meaning, in case of finding such a fired projectile, it is safe
• 2 cm Sprgr. Üb. L'spur o. Zerl. - practice projectile with a tracer, without a self-destructor. The body is empty inside, closed with a dummy fuse, with a tracer at the rear. Painted gray, with a bright red ring denoting a tracer.  Dummy fuse in natural metal colour.
  
• 2 cm Sprgr. Üb. L'spur m. Zerl. - and this one is a little bit more interesting, a practice projectile with a tracer and a self-destructor. That is, practice and explosive. It was equipped with a self-destructor combined with a tracer, with a small PETN charge at the rear part of the body. Forward part had inert filling and was closed with a dummy fuse - thus explosion was much weaker than a combat HE variant and the projectile had absolutely no impact action. It was painted gray overall and appropriately marked with a green ring at the base of the fuse (self-destructor) and a bright red ring at the rear (tracer). Practice ammuntion of this kind, exploding in the distance of 600-800 m, was intended for use on small training ranges.
  
• 2 cm Pzsprgr. Üb. o. Zerl. - practice armour piercing projectile without a self-destructor. It just differed from a regular 2 cm Pzgr. o. Zerl. with grade of steel, from which the body was made, and was also filled with pressstoff. Painted gray overall.
  

It has to be noted, practice variants of demolition (mine) projectiles, as e.g.  3 cm M-Gesch, L'Spur Üb. o. Zerl., except of being painted in a starndard practice projectile scheme, were also marked with a black letter M, in the same fashion as combat ammunition.

Those Germans were artistic souls. It's even more pretty than heavy Flak ammo, isn't it?

Related posts:

• Colour markings of German bombs 1939-1945 
• Colour markings of German bombs 1939-1945, part 2 (in Polish)
  
• Colour markings of heavy Flak ammunition (in Polish)
• Colour markings of 2 cm Flak ammunition (in Polish)