Issuance of Pistols in the British Army in World War II

In a very recent question, Ken a reader of this blog asked the following multiple part question; “Apart from officers, who were usually issued with pistols? Bren gunners? Which units carried the flamethrowers? What's the best place for finding photos of the uniform worn at Arnhem?”

Given the nature of the question, and the convoluted protocol currently required by the Google Blog to adequately respond to a comment, I have decided it would be far more efficient just to publish an article on the subject. One further caveat, this author’s discussion will be confined to WWII British Airborne Forces during Operation Market-Garden. However, prevailing logic would lead one to conclude it to be generally applicable to the balance of the British Army.

First, right up front my answer is at best provisional. As far as I can determine from my research to date, there was no strict set of regulations issued by the British Army in WWII governing the issuance of “pistols” (more correctly revolvers or semi-automatic pistols). The known exception covering the Inglis Browning Pistol No.2 Mk I* , to the Airborne Forces (https://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2015/12/were-inglis-or-patchett-machine-carbine.html.) . The same was the case in World War I. An Internet search reveals at least one M.A. Degree dissertation on the subject; http://www.worldwar1.com/tripwire/pdf/davidthomas.pdf  Unfortunately a comparable document on the subject in World War II has not yet been discovered. Obviously, hence Ken’s question, as I’m certain he has already conducted a similar search.

One of if not the best source of empirical evidence, is contemporary photographs. Fortunately, there was a team from the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) attached to the 1st Airborne Division during the entire operation. As far as known to this author the best compilation of their work is found in the two volumes, After the Battle OPERATION MARKET GARDEN THEN AND NOW, Karel Margry, Editor, Battle of Britain International Ltd, London, 2000. It is also the best single source of knowledge for what was actually wore by personnel during the operation, also the answer to one of Ken’s questions.

Based upon contemporary TO&Es, the above referenced set of images, and common sense, there is a very high probability that the following personnel carried either a revolver or semi-automatic pistol;

All commissioned officers and warrant officers (most frequently also carried a rifle or machine carbine).
All non-commissioned officers (with the rank of sergeant and above).
All dispatch riders.

Most glider pilots. 

Most personnel driving universal carriers (predominately Royal Army Service Corps and REME).
Although not present at Operation Market-Garden; Most tank and armoured vehicle (AFV) commanders, drivers, and crewmen (Royal Tank Regiment and Royal Ordnance Corps)
Most Tractor, Artillery, Morris C.8/AT Mk III drivers (prime mover for 17pdr AT Guns
Most Military Policemen.
Some radio operators
Some flamethrower operators (predominately trained Royal Engineers).
Some No. 1 Mortarmen.
All No. 1 Bren Gunners (specifically prescribed for Airborne Forces).
Some P.I.A.T. gunners.
Some Medical Orderlies.

The quantifiers 'most' and 'some' are used because as previously indicated there are no known specific directives established for issuance. Broad rule of thumb and logical guidance being any individual who required use of both hands to continuously operate their assigned equipment in combat.

Per various references including; War Department Technical Manual HANDBOOK ON THE BRITISH ARMY WITH SUPPLEMENTS ON THE ROYAL AIR FORCE AND CIVIL DEFENSE ORGANIZATIONS TM 30 – 410 Sept 30, 1942 (printed 1943): 

Scale of pistol allowance by various size of unit.

Armoured Division 14,964 officers and men - 2,324 pistols.

Infantry Division 18,347 officers and men - 1,011 pistols.

Airborne Division 12,416 officers and men - 2,942 pistols (as of late 1944, all semi-automatic).

Field Regiment, Royal Artillery 672 officers and men - 79 pistols.

Machine Gun Battalion 740 officers and men -174 pistols.

Machine Gun Platoon -10 pistols.

Infantry Brigade 2944 officers and men -154 pistols.

Infantry (Rifle) Battalion 845 officers and men - 34 to 47 pistols (depending on year/source).

Rifle Company 124 officers and men - 5 pistols.

Rifle Platoon 37 officers and men - 1 pistol.

Universal Carrier Platoon 64 officers and men - 2 pistols. 

In the specific case of the two British Airborne Divisions (1^st and 6^th ) circa 1944 the Divisional Standard Table of Basic Allowances cites 2,942 “pistols” per division. Until late 1944 these would have been predominately the Pistol, Colt, .45cal Self-loading M1911A1. Order of Battle Allowance for the 1^st Airborne Division at that time was 701 officers. That leaves a balance of 2,241 weapons; a significant quantity. I have tried based upon the Division's Order of Battle and TO&E to allocate the remaining weapons, but at best it would only be an educated guess.

The following is a series of images of the most common revolvers and semi-automatic pistols, and their associated holsters, issued in the British Army during World War II.

Pistol, Colt, .45cal Self-loading M1911A1 (predominately Airborne, Commando, and Special Forces)
(Author's note: In addition there were some M1911s (see second image) and some M1911A1s in .455cal)

Pistol, Inglis Browning, 9mm Self-loading, No.2 MkI* (predominately Airborne, Commando, and Special Forces), only after November 1944

Pistol, Webley .455cal, No.1 MkVI (Revolver)

Pistol, Enfield, .380cal No.2 Mk1 (Revolver)

Pistol, Webley, .38cal MkIV (Revolver, Limited Standard)

Pistol, Enfield, .38cal, No.2 MkI* (Revolver, “Commando/Tanker Model”)

.

WWI Royal Naval Division Cap Badges - Third Addendum

This Third Addendum brings additional information on the subject of WWI Royal Naval Division Cap Badges. Very recently appearing in the British and Commonwealth Military Badge Collector’s Forum was a discussion of probable additional contracted manufacturers to Gaunt “plaqued” examples, specifically the flood of fakes which occurred in the early 2000s.

In addition to the previous extensive discussion and definitive imagery provided by acknowledged expert John “Paddy” Newell, another forum expert Luke H has presented a group of Royal Naval Division badges which were not struck from any known set of fake dies. He mentions that in the first edition (1971) of John Gaylor’s book, Military Badge Collecting, every RND cap badge, other than the Drake Bn, were not struck from the Gaunt dies.

Given that premise is true the following imagery presents a whole new set of badges, unique from those manufactured by Gaunt which are both original and obviously genuine. Collectors who have relegated RND badges previously evaluated as fakes/copies, et al., to the “dust bin” and still have them, may do well to compare them to the newly found “genuine” badges displayed in this article.

With full acknowledgement and expressed gratitude to Luke H each of the badges presented show the Gaylor book image, as well as both the front and back of each badge. 

RND Howe Battalion (Specific features: oval 'O' and distinctive voids.) 

RND Anson Battalion (Specific features: very short left strawberry on coronet.)

RND Nelson Battalion (Specific features; straight N. Diagonal sail creases.)

RND Hawke Battalion (Specific features; arrow-headed bird and stamped lugs.)

RND Hood Battalion (Specific features; Lop sided scroll ends. Distinctive beak.)

Previously this blog has presented a series of articles which the reader can refer to on the subject; http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2011/08/wwi-royal-naval-division-cap-badges.html

http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2011/08/wwi-royal-naval-division-cap-badges_28.html

http://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2016/05/royal-naval-division-cap-badges-addendum.html

https://arnhemjim.blogspot.com/2019/06/wwi-royal-naval-division-cap-badges.html

Readers should feel free to copy images contained in these articles in order to make side-by-side comparisons with the images contained in all of the articles.

The Royal Navy Field Gun Trial an Annual Grueling Competition Steeped in Tradition

For those familiar with the Royal Navy, including the author who is a retired semi-skilled professional naval intelligence officer, it is known to be steeped in tradition. While admittedly a mere shadow of its two past zeniths, that being the end of World War I in 1918 and World War II in 1945, there are certain remaining traditions which still stir the souls of all sailors, and others throughout the world as well.

One tradition originated in 1907, which was unfortunately lost for a decade in 1999 due to shortsighted bureaucrats, was revived in 2009. It is the Royal Navy Field Gun Trial. It is a grueling, exciting, even freighting, literally finger shearing, bone breaking, race that annually commemorates a land action by the Royal Navy during the Second Boer War (Relief of Ladysmith, 1899 -1900), and certainly rivals, even exceeding, the running of the bulls at Pamplona.

Believe it or not it even has a toy soldier connection in that a relatively early set of W. Britains Ltd., toy soldiers, while not intentionally, still commemorates that original action. It is Set No.79, Royal Navy Landing Party with Limber and Gun, the first of three versions being issued in 1897, with the 3rd and last version being issued in 1952, and available up until 1966. As can be seen, the design of the toy replica gun even allows a similar disassembly paralleling the real guns used in the current competitions.

In the1990s there was also a British new toy soldier manufacturer of two partners, Mountford (David Love) -Tarrant (Peter Tarrant), who for a very short period produced a magnificent, accurate and complete 1:32 scale toy soldier replication of the event. I have been able to recover the files showing the figures, however unfortunately the images are very small, but do provide some idea of the scope and accuracy of the set. Particularly note the wheels and gun barrel compared with the simpler Britains first version (In all fairness Britains did increase the spokes from 8 to an accurate 12 in later versions). Saw some of the figures in The Guards Toy Soldier Centre (The Guards Museum) in London in 2006, but unfortunately priorities and resources intervened. 

While there is some historical confusion as to the exact configuration, and designation of the original guns, the author will defer to the official Royal Navy website which cites the gun as a “12 pounder field gun” (the correct nomenclature being, Ordnance, Quick Firing 12 pdr 12 cwt). The Britains set also incorporates a hand drawn limber very similar to the replica which is used in the current competition.

In order to alleviate some of the possible confusion, the four 12 pdrs in the Navy’s relief party were joined by two much larger Ordnance, Q.F. 4.7 inch Naval Guns (Mk I-IV) which had been removed from the Cape Town coastal defenses, and remounted on special improvised mobile carriages. These heavier pieces were drawn by teams of oxen. W. Britains also built several versions of this gun as Set No. 1264 4.7 in. Naval Gun (Mounted for Field Operations). For those who might be interested see; https://www.planetdiecast.com/index.php?&option=com_myblog&show=britain-47-inch-naval-gun-four-versionshtml&Itemid=157  .

The following are a series of images first showing the vintage gun and crew, a second current image of a restored gun posed in front of HMS Victory in Portsmouth Historical Dockyard, a third of one of the current competition crews manning their gun, and a fourth series of images showing the final version of the set of W. Britains toy soldiers.

For those readers who may be interested in a more extensive historical background of the competition the author recommends the following two web sites; https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/our-organisation/bases-and-stations/training-establishments/hms-temeraire/rn-field-gun

https://www.navy.gov.au/customs-and-traditions/field-gun-run 

A relatively recent (2009) Daily Mail reporter's account of the competition and team training regimen can be found at; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1179549/The-real-Top-Guns-Never-mind-health-safety--worlds-dangerous-sport--Royal-Navys-field-gun-race.html

Following are URLs of various past performances of the completion;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD4AFgxS9v8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUFe0tfF1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY1yf5MZA5o&feature=emb_rel_end

A General Administrative Notice to All Followers and Readers of the Arnhem Jim Blog Page

Since the origination of the Arnhem Jim blog page in March of 2011 the author has tried to maintain reader/viewer interest by posting a diverse spectrum of articles on seemingly esoteric subject matter. Given that the blog recently passed 800,000 hits it appears to have been able to achieve that objective, and it is personally very rewarding. That is particularly true in this year 2020, and the international challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whether you are one of the 90 identified Followers, or a first time viewer of the blog, the author would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank each and everyone of you personally for your interest and continuing support. Consistent with my gratitude, would like to covey my intent to maintain the blog as a living document, and continue to welcome general or specific comments and questions from all interested readers who may be inclined to comment.

I’m specifically very attentive to any errors brought to my attention, which are immediately corrected, with recognition and sincere gratitude being afforded to the “contributing editor”. 

Additionally it is realized that as most articles utilize a multi-media format, some of the URLs which are referenced in a single article, for a multiple of reasons, may not still be available or have moved. Periodically, unfortunately on albeit a random basis, the author tries to maintain the currency of referenced links. Also new additional relevant information from contributing viewers, new books, links, imagery, and other sources, are constantly being incorporated as revisions, corrections, or additions.

As only one person, what I am unable to accomplish is to provide notification to all readers of these refinements to each and every article when they occur. So if there is a specific subject and/or blog article of interest, this author would encourage you to periodically check the blog for any up-dates. At the beginning of all major subjects of established interest there hopefully is a cited most recent revision date. Unfortunately in the case of list of armaments, equipment, i.e. as they are referred to in military parlance, TO&Es, this effort has been inconsistent, so the reader should check. My apologies.

In closure the author would again like to express sincere gratitude to everyone, and continue to invite and encourage active participation in the Arnhem Jim blog. Please realize no question on any subject is considered too simple. An another continuing axiom which as a retired semi-skilled professional naval intelligence officer I try to rigorously adhere to, is the exclusion of the words ‘assume’ and ‘assumption’ from my vocabulary and research. 

And to reiterate:

A Scottish Regimental Toast (48th Highlanders of Canada; affiliated with the Gordon Highlanders)

Commanding Officer:

A Mhàidseir na pìoba, òlamaid deoch-slàinte!

(Pipe Major, let us drink a toast)

Pipe Major's reply:

A h-uile latha a chì 's nach fhaic, an dà fhicheadamh 's a h-ochd gu bràth! Slàinte

don Bhànrigh! Slàinte Mhòr! Slàinte!

(Every day that I see you, or that I don't see you, the 48th forever! Health to the Queen!

Great good health! Health!)