The classic brown paper and string packet similar to those supplied to troops before the Gallipoli landings in April 1915.

The primary concern in creating packaging for soldiers is ensuring that the ammunition is readily available to troops who should be able to open the casing with only their hands. Ammunition packaging has taken on many forms throughout Australia ’s service history. It began with paper packaging and string.

On 24 April 1915 thousands of Australian troops were issued with live ammunition in preparation for their landing at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula. Each received a small brown paper packet tied up with string containing ten rounds of rifle ammunition. The packaging was dropped overboard from the transports they were travelling in and left to float away slowly on the tide.

The floating packaging changed the mood among the young Australian troops moving one young Private, Robert Grant, of the 1 st Battalion Australian Imperial Force to write in his diary, ‘everybody was very silent and nervous…it was an unforgettable experience and produced a profound change in the behaviour of the men. The floating ammunition packets had a real significance.’

With the advent of the modern brass cartridge and the repeating rifle, ammunition from the late 1800s came in small packets of a few rounds. It was wrapped in brown paper bearing a description of its contents and bound with string. This was a time consuming and labour intensive process completed by thousands of ammunition factory workers.

It was hardly a practical method for the supply of the millions of rounds of small arms ammunition required for modern warfare. Yet the system was still in use up until the end of the Second World War, albeit in parallel with much more efficient methods developed for the packing, transport and dispensing of ammunition.

The more efficient methods which dominated ammunition packaging since the Second World War included packing the ammunition into cardboard packets or cloth bandoliers which were in turn sealed into light sheet steel containers. The metal containers were water proof and durable, particularly when packed in pairs into timber boxes.

The key to the system was that the sheet steel containers had a pull-tab opener, allowing ready access to the contents by a single person, without the need for tools. The pull-tab was prominent and could thus be readily located even in the dark. The cardboard packets contained up to 32 rounds and could be torn open and handed out quickly, without the need to cut or undo a string.

Disposable lightweight cloth bandoliers were also a significant step forward. Once the steel case was opened, single bandoliers of 50 rounds, already loaded into 5 round steel clips, could be quickly dispensed to waiting troops. Tightly bound by their own carry strap while packed, the bandolier provided the soldier with not only ready use ammunition, but also the means to carry it.

The United States Forces (USF) took this concept further during the Second World War. Rather than making the outer sheet steel container a disposable item, they developed a more sturdy ammunition box with a hinged lid, water tight seal, and integral carry handle. Commonly called a ‘liner’, they could be easily carried and were resistant to damage. They had the added advantage of being resealable if all the contents were not dispensed at once, a distinct advantage over the existing British system. Little wonder that this became the almost universal system used by the western powers in the post-Second World War period.

The USF ammunition box was used as the basis for an infinite variety of packing, and is a system that is still in wide use today in conjunction with more modern packaging methods utilising plastic outer containers and blister packs of ammunition.

The provision of pre-packed bandoliers containing 50 rounds in clips was a significant step forward from the paper and string method. It provided the soldier with both ready to use ammunition and the means to carry it. When packed tightly as shown, it did not take up any more packing space than 50 loose rounds and clips.