what sort of bullet could it be? I found this yesterday at Holy Cross Cathedral here in Honiara, Guadalcanal. The cathedral is built on a ridge that hosted Japanese machine guns covering the Mataniko River and artillery positions which fired on Henderson Field. It resembles most a spent .50 cal round but this is different from every other spent round I have seen. It is not solid with a tapering rear like all the other .50 rounds I have seen. This one is mostly hollow and elongated. it is split in 5 places up to the point where the round is solid near the point. Could it be an incendiary or something? Any guess or better appreciated
hi, i've spoken to sniper and he suspects it is someones attempt at a homemade dum-dum bullet where the 'petals' would fold out on that ridge seen about a third back from the point. The other option is some kind of explosive inside it designed to fragment upon impact, but this was either just lost and therefore never exploded but fractured out with decay and the effect of rust, or is some kind of training dummy. could also be american that fractured upon impact with soft earth so there was no impact upon the nose but the sudden reduction in velocity began the splintering process.
Hi Kitty I believe now it is a .55 Boys anti tank round. The American 1st Marine Division had a limited number of these weapons when they deployed to Guadalcanal in August 1942. The Marine Raider Battalions also used them in their attack on Makin Atoll. Apparently on Guadalcanal they used them for sniping as well !!! which kind of makes sense considering where it was found I am looking for a standard .50 cal round so I can post a comparative picture and as soon as I find one I will. Thanks for your reply
