Guarding the memories

In Memories 105 on Saturday, we were back with the Darlington Home Guard in 1940 - the picture above graced the front page of the supplement.

I've had several interesting emails in response, including this one from David Middlemas in Merrybent:

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I was interested to see the large Home Guard photograph on the front of today’s memories.
The men appear to have been issued with P17 rifles (actually Enfield M1917 to give them their correct title – or as they were often incorrectly labelled ‘Springfields’) and I seem to recall that these are actually the weapons as carried by Warmington-on-Sea platoon in the TV comedy series. This in itself is not unusual as about half a million of them arrived from the USA from June 1940 onwards. The P meant ‘pattern’ as in 1917 Pattern.

Curiously their arrival in the hands of British forces was rather ironic: They were based on a British design called the P14 which was modelled largely on the firing mechanism of the German Mauser rifle. In 1914 at the onset of WW1 companies such as Springfield, Remington, Eddystone and Winchester in the (then neutral) US had been contracted by the British govt to manufacture the P14 in .303 calibre (7.7mm) as an improvement/alternative to the standard SMLE (Short-Magazine-Lee-Enfield). In effect, although many P14s were manufactured  by the Americans, they saw little use by British forces who remained largely with the popular and reliable Lee-Enfield until about 1960 (in various guises). P14s were nevertheless deemed more accurate and were used as sniper rifles.

Faced with their own arms shortages in 1917, on entering WW1, these US companies ceased production of the P14 and changed its design to their own .3006 calibre (7.62mm) to supplement existing stocks of their own widely used M1906 Springfields – hence the birth of the P17. Following victory in 1918, both Britain and the US decommissioned their vast stocks of weapons and standardised their rifles. The British keeping their .303 Lee Enfields and the US their own .3006 M1906 Springfields.

P14s were put into storage by the British and US did the same with their P17s.

In the summer of 1940 as the bedraggled troops of the British Expeditionary Force were evacuated from Dunkirk (outflanked but unbeaten??) – often carrying only the clothes they stood in and without rifles or equipment, Britain was faced with another arms crisis. The stock of P14s were issued to troops and rearguard echelons as preparations to repel the looming German invasion were hastily made. Some of these weapons also eventually went to the Home Guard – but initially not in any great numbers.

The Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) actually began to form after a radio broadcast ‘call to arms’ by Secretary of State for War (now called Defence Secretary – ultimate example of political correctness perhaps!!) Anthony Eden on 14th May 1940 – following the surrender of Belgium. French and British forces had sensed a weakness in their lesser ally and had pushed forward into Belgium to hold the line from the end of the Maginot Line to the sea. On May 10th, German armoured columns had punched a hole through the weekly defended Ardennes forest of southern Belgium and were pushing through rear areas towards Paris. On or about 14th May, they began to swing north and Eden’s appeal was perhaps a sign that the govt were even then anticipating the final encirclement of the BEF at the coast which would ensue within two weeks.

Initially the LDV – soon numbering a massive 1.5 million men -  armed themselves with the shotguns, broom shanks, pitchforks and spears with which we are familiar – their only uniform being an armband! From July 1940 onwards, volunteers began to receive standard 1937 issue British Army Battle Dress as depicted in your photo. After a short while the LDV title was dropped and ‘Home Guard’ was adopted. The individuals in your photo all bear the standard curved ‘HOME GUARD’ cloth badge on their upper arms just bellow their epaulettes. Unfortunately the rather cruel LDV nickname of ‘Look Duck and Vanish’ was to stick with them until being finally stood down in December 1944 and officially disbanded in late 1945.   

P17 rifles began to arrive from the US in June/July 1940. They were thought to be reliable although rather bulky and heavy. They are of bolt action and have a magazine capacity of five rounds on a clip which is pushed in through the open breach on top of the weapon when the bolt is drawn back. A further round can be pre-loaded into the chamber (firing position). The weapon is distinctive from the Lee Enfield in that it has no metal magazine protruding forward of the trigger guard. The whole magazine was encased within the depth of the main  woodwork – hence the bulkiness. It also has a distinctive and almost over-sized ring covering the foresight. Both of these features can be clearly seen particularly on the rifle as carried by the man on the bottom left of your photo. Undoubtedly the greatest setback with the P17 however was the fact that it was chambered for the .3006 round and not the standard .303. This meant that ammunition was in painfully short supply and also had to come from the US. In many cases, units were equipped with weapons months before their ammunition arrived. In some cases units had only 5 rounds per man until well into 1941 and few men were ever given more than 50 rounds – which one regular army infantry general noted was sufficient for only about half an hour of battle at a push! Whilst this shortage of ammunition impacted directly on the battle effectiveness of the home guard – it also seriously impacted on their weapons training, particularly in live firing exercises and target practice.

You will note from all your photographs that none of the men carry anything other than their rifles, gas mask cases and bayonets and there are no signs of ammo pouches , webbing or bandoliers. This would suggest that any ammunition they have is either in their weapons or pockets – both rather unlikely! They would undoubtedly have partly compensated for this unfortunate shortfall, with their enthusiasm, determination and gritty resolve!

The ammunition issue also had some early rather dire consequences. P14 and the much more common P17 rifles were almost identical in outward appearance and if a unit was issued with a mixture of both – some confusion could ensue with differing ammunition. Both calibres would seem to fit each rifle but if a wrong calibre round was fired, the weapon would be destroyed with serious or perhaps fatal consequences for the firer. To cure this problem, all home guard issued P17s (and almost all none .303 calibre rifles) were identified by painting a wide red band around the woodwork or sometimes the barrel – the position standard as per each unit. Unfortunately the black and white photo cannot show this.

The Darlington unit can at least think themselves lucky that they haven’t been given Canadian ‘Ross’ rifles. Although these were of .303 calibre, they were painfully unreliable, poorly designed, had a tendency to fall apart in the hands of the user and were wholly unfit for purpose. These had been manufactured by the Canadians but all were withdrawn from service early in WW1 after hideous tales of woe including Canadian soldiers dumping their rifles and risking death by crawling into no-mans land in search for discarded British Lee Enfields. Sure enough about 350,000 of these subsequently ended up in Home Guard hands!

Other weapons came from museums or were donated by well wishers. In some cases police called-in legally held weapons which were then issued to Home Guard units. A little known fact is that the National Rifle Association (later championed by Charlton Heston!) actually appealed throughout the USA for weapons and tens of thousands of all shapes sizes and ages were sent to Britain – most of which were useless being of such obscure calibres!

As the war progressed and weapons manufacture caught up, almost all regular British troops ended up with Lee-Enfields again, finally receiving Mk 4s which were more or less the final version through to about 1960 when assault rifles were adopted. Many of these Lee Enfields were again made under licence in the US and Canada during the war years.

The P14s merely supplemented the far more common Lee-Enfields when the crunch came in 1940 – and being .303 calibre were handed out to regular troops straight away as well as some to the Home Guard – but the vast majority of whom had to wait for the US P17s in .3006 (the calibre commonly named ‘thirty odd six’ or just ‘thirty calibre’ in the US) when they eventually came (with the Ross rifles).

Unfortunately, I can't tell whether or not the Home Guard were also re-equipped with Lee-Enfields as the threat of invasion passed. Maybe they were towards the later stages of the war – perhaps as the introduction of new Mk4s from 1942 led to an abundance of older Mk3s. It would have perhaps made sense to do this in order to standardise ammunition, but by this time the UK was filling up nicely with US soldiers together with their arms and ammo, so .3006 was by no means in short supply.

The ammunition does differ slightly in appearance: the .303 round is slightly longer and has a protruding rim at the base of the cartridge which stands proud of the main profile in order to fit into a loading clip. As shortages of copper began to bite (in which the lead bullet was normally encased – or ‘ jacketed’) manufacturers resorted to zinc which made bullets silver in appearance (good for werewolves!). Cartridges remained as brass. The .3006 bullets remained copper coated –  the cartridges fitting into a slightly narrower loading clip via a machined groove rather than a protruding rim.

Either way, when loaded in a clip and perhaps aided by darkness and inexperience, each bullet would seem to fit either caliber weapon. Barrels on all modern firearms do not narrow to their true inner diameter (calibre) until forward of the firing chamber – at which point the rifling tightens in and causes the fired bullet to spin. This is when the jam would occur and the backed-up gasses would have no means of escape except by rupturing the barrel – or more likely by shattering the closed breach which would be level with the firer's face!

During the later stages of the war (in the far east) and ensuing Korean war, US troops were amazed at the power of the British .303 Lee Enfield (especially the Mk5 ‘Jungle carbine’ model – shortened and lightened for use in the forests) which far surpassed their own newer (self loading) .3006 M1 Garrands. It seems that you needed cover behind a much wider tree if a .303 round was fired at you! It was the American .3006 which won through in the end however, with almost all post war countries converting to this round (ie 7.62mm) – including both Nato and Warsaw Pact armies. Even today it lives on particularly with the AK47 (almost 200 million produced) and many varieties of machine gun. Technology in terms of firearms has not really moved on that much in over 100 years!

Hope this may be of interest  - although do I appreciate that a detailed breakdown of Home Guard weaponry would perhaps not always appeal to the wider audience!