Thompson 50 rd drum magazines

[tankhunter]

Attachment 73106

The spitfire was never fitted with 50 round drums. Because they used belt fed .303" barrelled wing mounted Brownings. In Banks of four, & later 20mm Cannon................ZZzzzzzz

NOTE: A 'Font of all Knowledge' Qoute!........

[browningautorifle]

Not to be mistaken with the Iron Cloud, I think it was called...which was fitted with Thompsons for ground support and trialed after WW1...

[Flying10uk]

The book which I was thinking of is: Great Britain - The Tommy Gun Story by Tom Davis Jr. I can't find anything in the book about the drum mags being returned to the States but it does offer a clue as to how the story may have arose. On page 58 it states that about 50,000 drum mags were in storage which were made under contract for the British after they decided they decided it was not suitable for military use. What it doesn't tell us is which side of the pond the storage is but in my opinion it sounds like the States. The book goes on to say that U.S. Ordnance considered them only fit for scrap and it was decided to do so. I suspect that what has happened here is that,at some time, some-one has heard that some British owned Thompson Drum mags have been scrapped in the States and has put 2 and 2 together making 44. They assumed that the mags were shipped back to the States to be scrapped when in actual fact they never left. I don't know that this is what happened but I suspect it may be how the story arose.