Smokless Powder?

[Wes]

I was reading a book about the 29th Division. It covered The division from its start as a Guard division through D-day and up to the taking of St Lo, France. One thing I found interesting was that when the division first entered the Bocage the troops were very shy about firing their weapons unnecessarily. The reason being that their powder was not smokeless and the firing would give away their positions. The author went on to say the Germans used smokeless powder so the US infantry had to locate German positions from the sound. I also believe I read some where that the US ammo was corrosive as well.

[emmagee1917]

Yep. Smokeless was the term used to mean " not black powder ". It did , indead , smoke much less than BP does. It was not , however , truly , totally ,smokeless , emiting a light blue-white puff from the barrel and a wee bit of flash . Was not a big problem till the shadowy dark of the Bocage. The German powder was much more smokeless and flashless than the US powders. Most all the ammo from WW2 is corrosive , but this is due to the priming compound in the primers , not the powder for the most part. They had non-corrosive primers , but everyone thought the corrosive priming compounds were more reliable. The 30 caliber carbine ammo of US manufacture has always been non-corrosive due to the " sealed" gas system.

HTH , Chris