Original WWII German ammunition, perhaps the best ever produced! This is armor piercing ammunition with a hardened steel core and lacquered steel case. All we have seen in this lot have the headstamp "hlb" and date to 1943.
The German troops first experimented the "Reversed bullet" as an early anti-tank method against the British heavy tanks of World War I . This technique was crude, but proved effective against Mark I tank models, although it was not safe to use for the infantry and soon became obsolete.
As a replacement, the Germans conceived the "K bullet", which was purposely developed as Armor-piercing ammunition. The K bullet was in use by Battle of Messines Ridge battle of Messines Ridge in June 1917 and had one out of three chance to penetrate 12–13 mm thick armor at a range of up to 100 meters.
With the British deployment of Mark IV tank, which had more armor thickness, the K bullet soon proved ineffective, leading the Germans to design highly specialized anti-tank solutions, with the creation of the powerful 13.2mm TuF cartridge and the first anti-tank rifle, the Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr. (from external source)
