A question for my fellow WWII wingnuts

[awp_101]

Dad asked me a question I don’t recall ever seeing answered before.

He saw a picture of the empty brass in the waist position of a B-17 after a mission and asked if it got scrapped or reloaded.

I have no recollection of ever reading or hearing what was done with it upon return.

Does anyone here know?

[farscott]

My understanding is some of the fired brass was used by the USA in 1944 and 1945 to mint pennies as the zinc-coated steel penny was only minted in 1943 due to rust and ferromagnetism issues. Copper was highly prized during WWII for both weapons and for radios. I assume some of the recovered brass was refined for electronics use.

[Joe in PNG]

It's an interesting question. I would suspect that if the aircraft was damaged and limping back to base, they'd dump everything they could.

Other than that, I'd just be guessing.

[MistWolf]

The US didn't re-use spent brass, something the British during the African Campaign couldn't understand. The British were amazed at how messy the Americans left a battlefield.

[Caballoflaco]

https://youtu.be/sSFw7N1_03A

From the the comments section of the video (which are worth a look)

page 222 "an active salvage program served as a source of scrap lead, brass, copper, and rubber,
vital to production in the United States." More specifically page 225 "

https://history.army.mil/html/books/010/10-15/CMH_Pub_10-15.pdf (It’s free online)

He also has a video on Wermacht weapons recycling programs


https://youtu.be/IGCtjct6AAQ

And the German Aninal recycling program


https://youtu.be/CFcV5DNVJaY

[Stephanie B]

The US didn't re-use spent brass, something the British during the African Campaign couldn't understand. The British were amazed at how messy the Americans left a battlefield.

86340

My dim memory is that drop tanks for fighters were made from compressed/lacquered paper to keep the Germans from recycling the metalones.

[TGS]

The British were amazed at how messy the Americans left a battlefield.

This is the most British thing I've heard thus far in 2022.

Had no idea, thanks for sharing.

[peterb]

This is the most British thing I've heard thus far in 2022.

Had no idea, thanks for sharing.

They were also amazed at how much food our troops had.

“The Taste of War” is a fascinating look at the importance of food supplies in WWII. Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Taste-War-World-Battle-Food/dp/0143123017

[UNM1136]

My understanding is some of the fired brass was used by the USA in 1944 and 1945 to mint pennies as the zinc-coated steel penny was only minted in 1943 due to rust and ferromagnetism issues. Copper was highly prized during WWII for both weapons and for radios. I assume some of the recovered brass was refined for electronics use.

Me too. I remember Uncle Pat consoling those of us showing up with Wolf ammo to classes that in WWII the US used steel cased (pistol, at least) ammo, because steel was cheaper than brass. War effort and all.

ETA: my LE6920 and 1911 have eaten HUGE ammounts of issued steel case. Just scrub out the nasty polymer coating that gums up everything when fired....

pat

[JRB]

When I was a young child, my Mom befriended a former B17G ball turret gunner that flew with the 8th Air Force. He was shot down over France and most of his crew survived because of the combined efforts of resistance fighters and underground collaborators. He became a Chiropractor after the war. My Mom visited him about once a week to work on her various back and neck problems from a motorcycle wreck in her teenage years.
I loved going to his office. We'd always chat a little bit while my mother changed into or out of the treatment gown. His office was covered in various WWII memorabilia and smelled of cigar smoke (oh the 1980's!) and he'd tell me all kinds of stories about WWII, shenanigans his Army buddies got into, and his foray into professional wrestling that lasted until the 1950's - back when it was still a fight and not entertainment. He was always full of sage wisdom and semi-practical jokes, but he was a consummate gentleman in all the ways that mattered. At one point he'd convinced me at 5 or 6 years old that Broccoli were baby trees and that's why they tasted so bad, and that full grown trees tasted better.
He also snuck me a single sip of Buchanan's whiskey when I expressed some curiosity, I think I was about 9 years old. I made a predictably sour face and said something like 'My gosh this tastes AWFUL' and he let loose with a trademark deep belly laugh, before admonishing me to never tell my mother. I never did. That had a good side effect of ensuring I had zero curiosity about drinking until I was almost old enough to drink anyway.

But I remember holding a piece of .50 BMG brass he handed me and thinking, 'wow this is so big, and they must make a lot of it, where does it go?' So I asked him. The ball turret guns ejected brass straight down out of the aircraft and bomber formations took that into account to minimize how much of that brass might hit another bomber if the guns started firing. Same was true of the tailgunner's guns and the chin turret's guns. The waist gunners, the radio operators guns, and the dorsal turret guns all ejected into the aircraft and with a heavy firing schedule they'd end up having to sweep it out of the aircraft in flight, sometimes out of the bomb bay and sometimes just right out of the waist gunner firing ports by the bucket full.
Part of their cleanup and servicing when they got back to base was to sweep all the brass out, and they'd put it all into barrels to be hauled away to the Brits since they wanted it. I remember him saying they kept the 30 cal and 50 cal separate so that suggests they probably reloaded it.

Apologies that this doesn't directly answer the question more knowledgeably, but it rekindled some good memories of a good man and I wanted to take the time to share it, and perhaps remember more pertinent details in the process.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

If you google - coins made from ammo cases, you will find detailed analyses of these coins and also ones made overseas.

https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/shell-case-pennies/