No ones going to mention this is obviously horse shit?
Like there’s so much wrong with this story I’m sure where to begin, like they will have produced ammunition in the 100s of thousands, did they write a note in like 1 in 20, or did they just get extremely lucky?
Where did they fund the shells? They either would have gone in one side and out the other, or they would have just disintegrated, especially if they were hollow.
The explosive filled in these shells is fairly significant amount of their mass. Did the Nazis running the factories not notice when the cases of ammunition are 20% lighter than they should be and the workers have several tonnes of explosive filler left over? Was there no quality control in the factories at all?
Why would they just start cutting open shells they presume are high explosive?
It looks like the source is a memoir written by a soldier. So I guess you’d have to take that one guy’s word for it, assuming interviews etc. with other people who would have seen the same event don’t exist.
The explosive filled in these shells is fairly significant amount of their mass.
Not really - the explosive charge is less than half an ounce when the whole shell (the projectile part, not including the cartridge casing and the propellant) is about 3.5 ounces. So the explosive charge is about 10% of the weight of the shell.
when the cases of ammunition are 20% lighter than they should be
The entire cartridge weighs about 11 ounces, so a cartridge with an empty charge cavity would be only about 2-3% lighter than normal. A case would also include the belt(s) and the weight of the box, so a case of sabotaged cartridges would be almost imperceptibly lighter than normal, with a difference probably less than 1%.
I agree that story is likely bullshit, but not for that particular reason. I don’t see why workers would risk calling added attention to their sabotage by putting little notes into each shell - not to mention the writer’s cramp this would produce.
No ones going to mention this is obviously horse shit?
Like there’s so much wrong with this story I’m sure where to begin, like they will have produced ammunition in the 100s of thousands, did they write a note in like 1 in 20, or did they just get extremely lucky?
Where did they fund the shells? They either would have gone in one side and out the other, or they would have just disintegrated, especially if they were hollow.
The explosive filled in these shells is fairly significant amount of their mass. Did the Nazis running the factories not notice when the cases of ammunition are 20% lighter than they should be and the workers have several tonnes of explosive filler left over? Was there no quality control in the factories at all?
Why would they just start cutting open shells they presume are high explosive?
This 1,000% didn’t happen.
I’m not saying it happened, but it is a “known” story. Example: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/12/28/all-we-can-do-for-you-now-how-czech-sabotage-saved-a-b-17-crew/
It’s an apocryphal story.
It looks like the source is a memoir written by a soldier. So I guess you’d have to take that one guy’s word for it, assuming interviews etc. with other people who would have seen the same event don’t exist.
Not really - the explosive charge is less than half an ounce when the whole shell (the projectile part, not including the cartridge casing and the propellant) is about 3.5 ounces. So the explosive charge is about 10% of the weight of the shell.
The entire cartridge weighs about 11 ounces, so a cartridge with an empty charge cavity would be only about 2-3% lighter than normal. A case would also include the belt(s) and the weight of the box, so a case of sabotaged cartridges would be almost imperceptibly lighter than normal, with a difference probably less than 1%.
I agree that story is likely bullshit, but not for that particular reason. I don’t see why workers would risk calling added attention to their sabotage by putting little notes into each shell - not to mention the writer’s cramp this would produce.