This may go down in Forum history as one of the most ridiculous, useless ponderances ever posted, but it really has me thinking.
And, you never know, maybe there is an answer!

During WWII, with all those fighters and bombers shooting literally millions and millions of various calibre MG and canon rounds at each other, especially over heavily populated areas of the major British and German cities, are there any reports, or at least, a batch of incidents where people or cars or whatever, have been hit by these 'wayward' projectiles.

OK, maybe after loosing the initial 'clout' from the load behind them, they would just be falling at 'terminal velocity'. But then, what is the 'terminal velocity' for lead or steel jacketed lead etc?
They would definitely be capable of causing some nasty injuries at whatever speed they fall.

Surely, considering the literal billions involved, some must have hit someone or something.

Interesting thought Brensec.  My dad was 8 years old during the Battle of Britain and remembers being at school during Air raids etc.  They used to have to leave class and go to some sort of shelter.  He has told me that they used to collect the shell casings after the event and remembers them "raining down" on the play ground one day whilst they were walking across it.  He has never mentioned anyone getting hit by a casing or spent bullet but I suppose it must have happened somewhere.

Will

I imagine Ozzy's account would be a more rare occurence, but still, in dogfights within a few hundred yards of the ground, I can't see a fighter pilot (British or German or American for that matter) holding his fire at the perfect moment, because there is a house or building in the background.

To be honest, I didn't even think of the casings, of which there would be even more 'crashing' to earth than rounds. They, being brass (lighter than lead) and less than aerodynamic in shape, would probably have been less dangerous, but as said, still could kill.

Can you imagine the number of brass casings scattered all over Europe, Nth Africa, the Atlantic, the Pacific and Islands? It boggles the mind!

Maybe not such a ridiculous ponderance after all!! 

(I just sit and these things, for some reason, come to mind - beats the crap out of me). 

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A bit strange that the bullets and casings would be in the same place, though?
The guns would have to have been fired exactly 'perpendicular' to the ground for both to fall or land in the same spot. And even then the bullets would have 'burrowed' into the ground and the shells would have bounced on the surface.

I've only ever heard of one person getting killed by falling amunition but my great aunt was hit in her left leg.
The guy that was killed was on an airfield at the time so it might not have been an accident. ???

possibly:) i have not seen pics of how wallop was setup during ww2 so it is posible

Brensec;

When I bought my home I had a new roof put on,
about 3 months later had a leak in the living room,
called the roofer, we found a 223 caliber round stuck
in the roof, rural area lot of hunters, It only penatrated
about 1/4" came in almost straight down and just
got through the shingles and tar paper, didn't even
dent the wood!!
This may shed some lite on this matter!!!

X
Brad

And I thought I was old Fozzer!

Hey!

Do you remember Zeppelins bombing London?

Well...................thanks for all the comments and stories.

It seems as though it wasn't such a silly thought after all. 

I remember back in the '60's, my brother and I had a huge collection of ammunition from WWII and Vietnam.
My grandfather gave us the stuff from WWII and the bloke next door (eldest son) came back from Vietnam a couple of times and gave us heaps of stuff.
It's strange, alot of it was live .50 cal and 20mm canon etc. Even had a "25 pounder" shell casing. Don't know why our parents allowed us to keep it in our room, but they did...............Times were different, I suppose.
I don't know where any of it is now.
I remember we had a 'belt' of .30 cal ammo (the one with the 'canvas' type belt that the rounds slipped into. It may have been from a Spit, because our grandfather flew one................ ???

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Hi Oso...!
..that was nothing compared with the problems we had with Julius Ceasar and the Romans.
Queen Boadicea did her best to save us Londoners, but to no avail... ...!
....I remember it well... ...!
Here is an old photograph taken of her at the time of the invasion.....



Pic courtesy of Arthur Moreland.

Cheers mate... ...!
Paul.
(England).

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We also had some .50 cal rounds (only about 5 or so) that were separate, but they had a kind of 'spring steel' strap around them. The little straps could be connected bt interlocking clips. Would these have been from some sort of aircraft gun?



P.S. What cal. were the smaller guns used in the earlier P40's (.30 or .303 - they also had 2 x .50's on the nose). We had heaps of them here during the war. Also, there were heaps of Boomerangs and Wirraways (Texans) with either .30 or .303 guns. Ciould have been any of them. But if the .30 was used mainly in the Yank fighters, then maybe some of the .30's we had were from a P40.
For my grandfather to have had them, it's more likely that they would have been accessible to RAAF personnel.
But..............then, they would have had Lewis guns for ground defence!.....................so.............Who knows!

No. These were live rounds. they hadn't been in a breach. I understand that the belt part (whatever it is made of) doesn't go into the breach.

We also made our own ammunition. In Sydney there were two locations, both of which are still in existence (the last to actually produce ammo was only shut down about five years ago, right after a greade exploded on the assembly line). That was St Marys (1 mile from my home) and the other was Silverwater (further in towards the city).
At Silverwater, the underground bunkers are still there. You can see the 'mounds'  in the earth with the big double doors going into the side of the hill. It's located on the Parramatta River (obviously so the ammo could be transported by barge to Sydney Harbour directly from the factory or storage bunkers.  

Just remembered. I know we also manufacture Winchester rounds somewhere in Australia, under license, too. I have a box of 8mm (.32 cal) Winchester ammo that has 'Made in Australia' stamped on it.