Continuing our look at a selection of British Army ammunition boxes from the Second World War, tonight we have an example of the ‘P60’ box:This box is unusually shallow in depth and originally held four projectiles for the 25 pounder field gun. The 25 pounder used separate projectiles and propellant cases, the gunners adding or removing charge bags to alter range. The projectiles were packaged into separate metal ammunition boxes for safety and this is an example of one of these and was used for armour piercing shells. The box’s designation can be seen embossed into the lid:‘MC’ would be the manufacturer’s mark and I suspect this might be Morris Cars but I cannot be sure yet; this box dates back to 1943. Apart from its shape the box is pretty conventional and has metal handles at both ends for carrying it:Note that as a later box this does not have the rubber grips of the M104 we looked at a few weeks back. The lid is secured with two heavy duty hinges:And a pair of wire spring clips:This particular box is one of the more common to find, the 25 pounder remaining in service for many years after the Second World War, this example survived as a tool chest and has been repainted by me back into it’s original service-brown colour. Ammunition for the 25 pounder was normally held in a special armoured limber that was pulled behind the quad tractor. These limbers had their own ammunition trays and were armoured for use in a battlefield, therefore it would have been the job of the gun crew to replenish these armoured limbers form ammunition boxes such as this one during quiet times so as to keep the gun fed during battle.