South Africa

When WWII broke out it was decided that a second facility was required in addition to Pretoria and in September 1941 a new factory was opened at Kimberly. Initially both plants used the “U” code but in 1942 the Kimberly headstamp was amended to include a diamond, presumably because of Kimberly’s prevalence in diamond mining. The original Pretoria factory closed in 1942 and the plant transferred to Kimberly which became the sole manufacturer in South Africa, producing ball, tracer and armour piercing ammunition.

In September 1945 the Kimberly plant was itself closed and production reverted to Pretoria and the original “U” headstamp. That facility continued to make small arms ammunition until the mid 1980’s, but with several changes of headstamp code.