Armoured panel ID.

[mrclark303]

Without hands on I would think the dents in the small plate are normal ball. The other holes might be any similar size bullet. Possibly testing penetration on armour?

That's interesting, it's the only inch thick plate I've found, I can't say I've ever fired ball ammunition against steel, but I am surprised it will penetrate approximately half way through one inch thick steel?

I assumed standard ball would simply put a small dish into thick steel plate.

The rectangular building that once stood in front (only the foundations left now) must have had some sort of protection built in. Either that, or sandbagged very well indeed!

Just the armourers hut left standing today.

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[Gil Boyd]

Certainly armour piercing rounds used in the thicker plate there John, which as I said earlier was not uncommon as they stepped up their weaponry from the .303 to .50 and others in the rear turrets solely for the Pathfinder Squadrons against attack by night fighters.
The Lancasters only had what they had in and around the cockpit, enough for a few sustained bursts, not like the Wellingtons and others who had a large rack system to feed the rounds to the guns.

[Daan Kemp]

That's interesting, it's the only inch thick plate I've found, I can't say I've ever fired ball ammunition against steel, but I am surprised it will penetrate approximately half way through one inch thick steel?

I assumed standard ball would simply put a small dish into thick steel plate.

The composition of the steel determines the penetration. Ordinary steel is relatively soft and needs treatment to be hole resistant = armour. Thus shooting plates on a range means the plates have to be a specific steel, otherwise they crater and look like these plates quickly.

Eg in the army we used to shoot falling plates at 100m with the R1 and 303. No problem with holes or craters.
Changing to 5.56 and R4. My first experience with nromal 5.56 ball was that it was useless as the plates didn't fall over. On inspection I found nicely centred holes in the plates, didn't transfer the enercy at all. We changed the steel of the plates to accommodate the new cartridge. Not thicker steel, just better.