As for ammunition Fred, well, Armourers have a saying that we don't mix it with ammo and ammunition technicians don't mix it with weapons - and never the twain shall meet. That's just a short answer to say that I don't know anything about ammo except this. If any of the ammo that was in the system was unsuitable, then they wouldn't have dished it out!

The only thing I do remember was that there were 30 round cut-down belts of .303" Mk7 and 8z issued that was only suitable for Bren guns. All the rest, be it RG, RL and HXP was as good as it gets and there was plenty of it. The real question is why they got the L81 when the answer was within the L39!

As you say, there were also serious questions about the finished quality and quality of the bought-in body forgings too.......