On 30 Mar 2012 on p.124/#3463,
harryhrrs made his first PPRuNe Post on this thread, and was warmly welcomed aboard. He was an ex-RAF Armourer of WWII, about my age, and I asked him to confirm what I'd vaguely heard when I first met the Vengeance, namely that the US Browning 0.300s in the rear had been replaced by British Browning 0.303s, in the first place because these had been found to be more reliable, and secondly because ours had been modified so that when firing stopped, the breech block was held back by a "rear sear" (shades of ITW !), whereas the 0.300s stopped forward with one "up the spout".
With these there was a danger that with a vey hot gun, this round would "cook" and go off by itself, whereas the round on our block, held back clear, would not. Not only that, but ours, particularly in a wing mounting, would have cooling ram air flowing through it after firing, but the 0.300 didn't. It seemed an obvious question to ask an armourer, and would help to "break the ice". I asked
harryhrrs.
In fact, I could easily have got this informaion from Google/Wiki, but I was an IT sprog then (still am) and it didn't occur to me till long after. We never heard from him again. This was by no means an unusual occurrence, we have ofteh had "birds of passage" like this (and he
was 92). But in recent times I have come to wonder if perhaps he resented my question as being an attempt to check his "bona fides" (which it certainly was not - although we have had our share of Walter Mittys), and retired hurt into his shell. I hope it was not so.
Danny42C.