Dave,
The 3 round Half moon clips, or, the 6 round full moon clips, were originally designed during WWI so as to allow the Colt and S&W revolvers to fire .45 ACP ammo. The cylinder was so sized at the factory to accept these spring steel clips. The .45 ACP revolvers were adapted to help ease the shortage of the Government Model 1911. Since the spring steel moon clip would kick out all 6 fired rounds in one motion AND one could load 3 or 6 rounds into a revolver with just one or two motions, these revolvers could be reloaded
almost as fast as an automatic. When the Webley's came on the civilian market many found that, with the break top action, a modified Webley, i.e., rear cylinder face machined off to the proper dimension, the Webley could be reloaded even faster than with the original Brit rimmed rounds.
PadreDan, help me out here; I though the .445 Webley would accept the .45 Auto Rim without having to machine the rear of the Cylinder. I seem to recall trying to cut down the rimmed .45 Long Colt cases so their OAL matched the .455 Brit, but then one had to shave the rear of the .45 Long Colt cartridge a few thousandths because the rim of the Long Colt was thicker than the .455 Brit and would drag on the recoil shield. I'm dragging this stuff out of a very dusty and very old memory bank.
Anyway...End of gassy lecture and, a wonderful example of a Webley!
Regards,
John