9MM Ammo

When I was a soldier in Northern Ireland and left our base in civilian clothes and driving a Q car I was issued with The 9mm Browning L9A1 pistol like he one in the above video that one being used by the RNZAF but using the same 9mm Ammo Being a young man I thought it was cool to have it stuck down the back of my jeans. Truth is if I had to use it I was probably up a very smelly creak without any paddles and a sinking boat. Below is an extract from my book `Watching Men Burn` when I was in Northern Ireland. Luckily I never had to use it. 

I was driven into Belfast by what is known as a Q car, an old Ford transit van with the rear windows blacked out. It was supposed to blend into the urban environment. We might as well have had a neon sign on the roof flashing ‘British soldiers’. It was just good to get out of jail and as I peered through the little pinholes in the window I saw a city going about its business, apparently oblivious to the current troubles. We reached the mill safely and I was shown my accommodation, a small room with about ten bunk beds crammed inside. All the other beds were made up apart from one in the corner. I assumed this must be mine. There were a couple of infantry lads in the room and they made me feel at home cracking jokes in their Geordie accents. I asked them if the empty bed was mine. They said yes, but as I put my kit on the bed they became very quiet. I unpacked and made up the bed and waited for orders. I found out later the reason for their change of mood. The empty bed had belonged to one of their mates that had been shot a couple of nights earlier. I actually heard about the shooting on my civvie radio in my tower. The casualty was doing top cover at the time. This is done by two soldiers facing in opposite directions as they stand through a hatch in a


land rover, hopefully covering a full 3600 all round defence, looking for anyone trying to endanger the mobile with an improvised explosive device or even the more common or garden petrol bomb.


The soldier was hit by a 5.56mm round probably fired from an M16 armalite rifle. Unlike a British army 7.62mm round that spins straight through the air, an M16 tumbles through the air. The round hit under his armpit, missing his INIBA vest that had a plate front and back protecting his vital organs. It bounded off a few ribs and amazingly exited behind his knee. He didn’t realise that he’d been hit at first and felt the dampness of blood, before the pain hit him and he passed out
The locals soon realised that a Brit had been hit and began cheering and throwing bricks and the usual supply of petrol bombs. They stopped the ambulance by blocking the street, the bastards obviously wanted him to bleed to death. His light infantry mates soon cleared them away with baton rounds and he was rushed away to the Royal Victoria Hospital where he made a full recovery, luckily. And I had his pit space

Just to make me feel better, the lads told me that the last time they had a Gunner, oddly enough from 32 Regiment, he was killed by a M60 machine gun and of course the bastard pressing the trigger. I checked this out later and found it to be true.







Author on foot-patrol with his trusty 7.62MM SLR