.50 inch Browning

The .50 Browning gun and ammunition were being developed in the United States at the end of the First World War, but the war ended before the weapon entered service.

Britain was aware of this development and first considered use of the Browning in late 1918 to counter German ground attack aircraft that were fitted with armour too thick for the .303 inch Armour piercing ammunition to defeat. As the war ended, British interest in the .50 inch Browning lapsed for several years.

Further trials took place in 1923 and 1924 with ammunition supplied by Kynoch to compare performance with the newly developed .5 inch Vickers ammunition and in the period 1924 - 26 Woolwich both reloaded American cases with their own design of bullet and manufactured complete rounds. Kynoch also supplied flame tracer ammunition.

Early Ball Ammunition

Kynoch Manufacture

The ammunition supplied to Woolwich by Kynoch was known in the UK as .5 inch Armstrong Whitworth Colt since Armstrong held the British licence from Colt who in turn held the Browning patents. When Vickers acquired Armstrong in 1927 the name changed to Vickers Armstrong Colt.

The Kynoch ammunition had a case of standard dimensions but was Berdan primed. The Headstamp was "K26 .5 A.W-C".

The bullets had a cupro-nickel envelope with a mild steel core and weighed 800 grains.

1930 packet label for .Kynoch made 50 inch Vickers Armstrong Colt rounds

Woolwich Manufacture

Woolwich initially reloaded American ammunition supplied by Frankford Arsenal but also manufactured their own cases. The bullets used in both cases were identical.

The Woolwich case was slightly different in dimension to the standard case, having a different shoulder angle and position and a slightly rebated rim. The headstamp was "R/|\L 1926 1864", the latter number being the design department drawing number.

The bullet was flat based with a cupro-nickel envelope and a steel core enclosed in a thin lead sheath. The total bullet weight was 804 grains of which the core weighed 498 grains. There was no cannelure.

Muzzle velocity was 2,580 fps.

Further trials against the Vickers gun were held by the Admiralty in 1928 but they expressed a slight preference for the Vickers gun. Another set of trials were held in 1935 with similar results.

With no interest now from any of the services, the .50 inch Browning again faded from the military scene. Despite this, throughout the 1930s Kynoch continued to manufacture the round and sold large quantities to foreign customers, developing a full range of loads in tracer, armour piercing and incendiary.

It was not until the arrival of equipment purchased from America in 1940 that the .50 Browning gun and ammunition came into British service. In May 1941 America passed the Lend Lease Act and from that point on large quantities of American equipment and .50 inch ammunition entered British service. Most of this was regular U.S. military ammunition which was given British nomenclature but large quantities of British designed rounds were made in Britain from 1941 onwards.

Considerable effort went into developing British designed ball, tracer, incendiary, armour piercing and explosive rounds during WW2, all loaded into cases made at ROF Spennymoor.

British .50 inch Browning bullets have a noticeably sharper point than their American equivalents.

Post was the requirements of the British military were met by production by ICI Kynoch.