The wooden H51 ammunition box, a pair of which fitted into the metal H50 ammunition box, was used for a wide variety of different ammunition. Previously we have looked at a box to carry .303 ammunition in here, and today we are looking at another example marked up to carry 9mm ammunition

The rust has rather destroyed the edging bands of this box and it is now in the workshop for restoration, but the markings are nice and clear. We can see that this box was filled on the 18th June 1957 with 875 9mm ball rounds in Mk 2z cartons:

The government explosives group stamp can be seen stencilled to the left of the contents marking. The box does seem to pre-date the NATO symbol indicating the nature of the bullet, a solid circle being added a few years later to indicate ball ammunition.

The contents of the box are repeated on the top in white stencilling:

The markings on the side and the top of the ammunition box relate to its contents, the markings about the box itself are to be found stamped into the wood on the base:

These indicate that the box is a H51, was manufactured in 1954 and by a firm with the initials AJW.

Despite being in poor condition, this box is a nice companion piece for the H52 inner tin liner that I covered on the blog here which is also for 9mm ammunition.