Handbook of Enemy Ammunition was a vital series of British War Office military intelligence publications issued during the Second World War. Fifteen individual pamphlets appeared between 1940 and 1945, providing field units in Europe and Africa with authoritative guidance on the identification of enemy ordnance.
Their primary purpose was practical and lifesaving: to enable troops to recognise unfamiliar ammunition on the battlefield before specialist personnel, notably Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) ammunition technicians, were called upon to render it safe, remove it or destroy it.
Although German ordnance received the most extensive treatment, the series also documented Italian and Japanese equipment. Its coverage included small-arms ammunition, fuzes, grenades, artillery and anti-tank ammunition, mines such as the Tellermine 43, and specialised aircraft cannon rounds. Italian mortar bombs and grenades, together with Japanese nose fuzes, high-explosive shells and infantry weapons, were likewise examined.
The series culminated in War Office Pamphlet No. 15 of May 1945, which provided comprehensive reference tables and colour plates for interpreting German manufacturing codes, packaging and paint markings. Collectively, these pamphlets form an important record of wartime ammunition intelligence and ordnance recognition.
Issues 1-15 can be ordered directly from military history specialist Naval & Military Press.