[hirondelle]

So as not to clutter Igors fine build thread I wanted to add this to the discussion on whether shells are ever stored nose down...

I have not seen any evidence in any WW2 tank manuals (of any nation) to suggest that this is a common or advisable practice (damage, separation, detonation etc).

The comments of y66 on caliber & handling ease are not logical in context of operational & safety considerations.

In agreement with KevinWS observations -
Operationally the need for speed of selection & loading over-rides the suggested advantage of gripping the rim end. There is no time for reversing & identifying individual shells in combat.

However, I suspect that there is one reason that the shells depicted are 'reversed', I believe I read something about the need to save brass (around the time of the Hurtgen battles), & there may be other reasons why a crew might not have time to dump spent casings but need them out of the way. Filling an empty rack tidies up & reversing them makes it easy to see they are spent. They can then be easily removed when rearming.