Historical Firearms

Royal Marines Commandos Demonstrating the Carl Gustav Recoilless Rifle

These photographs show two Royal Marines from 45 Commando demonstrating the new 84mm Carl Gustav anti-tank weapon. The photos were taken in August 1963 during a War Office demonstration for senior officers of the Middle East Command.

The demonstration took place at Little Aden, a peninsula in the port city of Aden, then a British protectorate. The 84mm Carl Gustav eventually replaced the American 3.5 inch rocket launcher which had been adopted to replace the PIAT in British Service in the late 1940s.

These photos show the M2′s optic on the left side of the barrel, the rifling inside the barrel (in the first photograph) and the blast after firing which can be seen to kick up a great deal of sand in the second photograph.

Carl Gustav M2 Recoilless Rifle (source)

The first photograph shows Marine Chris Pow, of Plymouth, preparing to fire the new anti-tank gun while the second shows Marine Eric Pearson, of Salford, Manchester, just after he’s fired the M2 Carl Gustav. The Swedish anti-tank weapon fired a fin-stabilised 84mm (or 3.3 inch) high explosive anti-tank round among other types of ammunition. The Carl Gustav, or ‘Charlie G’ remained in service with the British army into the late 1980s when it was superseded by the LAW and Javelin systems. The new and improved M4 may be considered for adoption again.

Sources:

Images: 1 2

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5 years ago 113 notes

Weekly Recap

We’ve covered a lot of ground over the last couple of weeks. Everything from interesting Swiss prototype pistols to belt-fed BARs. A little known Smith & Wesson carbine to the correct name for the FN High Power. Last week saw the latest Historical Firearms Wallpaper too. Check out the links below.

Thanks again for following, reading and supporting HF. If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon! You can also help spread the word about HF and the content I cover by sharing links with friends and sharing on social media, don’t forget you can also follow HF on facebook. As always if you have any questions, suggestions feel free to send me a message here.

Thanks guys,
~Matt

Historical Trivia: High Power or Hi Power?
February HF Patreon Wallpaper - Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless
Evelyn Owen’s First Prototype
Monarch Arms ‘Rifle-ette’ Stock
Smith & Wesson 9x19mm Prototype Carbine
Royal Marine Jungle Patrol: Jungle Mariners
LW Seecamp Pocket Pistols
In Action: Pattern 14 Rifle
Experimental Waffenfabrik Bern Pistole 47
Wiley T. Moore’s Belt-Fed BAR
Quotes of the Day

For more content check out the Historical Firearms facebook page which has some additional pictures and other content.

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

7 years ago 145 notes

Tagged: #History #Military History #Firearms History #gunblr #guns #weapons #Owen Gun #w+f bern pistole 47 #BAR #Royal Marines #LW Seecamp #Monarch Rifle-Ette stock #monarch pistol stock #Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless #Hi Power #High Power #Pattern 1914 #Smith & Wesson Model 1945

The Battle of Grytviken

Just hours after the surrender of the Naval Party 8901 on the Falklands, Argentine forces attacked the British island of South Georgia about 1,550 km east of the Falkland Islands.

A troop of 22 Royal Marines had been dispatched to the island by Rex Hunt the governor of the Falklands in response to Argentine attempts to clandestinely seize the harbour or provoke a British response in March 1982. HMS Endurance, shadowed the Argentine vessel Bahía Paraíso as the newly arrived Royal Marine detachment prepared for battle. The Argentine Corvette ARA Guerrico (see image #3) arrived on the 2nd April but was unable to launch its helicopters because of bad weather.

Early on the morning of 3rd April news of the Falklands surrender arrived via the Argentines who demanded the surrender of the island and all British forces in Grytviken - a former whaling station and settlement (see image #1). When this was refused Guerrico began to enter the harbour and the ship’s helicopters began bringing Argentine Marines ashore King Edward point.

84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle (source)

The Royal Marines under Lieutenant Keith Mills had mined the most obvious amphibious landing beach and dug in. They engaged the Argentine helicopter with rifle and machine gun fire causing it to crash land killing two and wounding four more (see images #2 & #4). As ARA Guerrico moved into the harbour the Marines opened up with machine guns and a L14A1 84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle scoring a number of direct hits damaging the corvette’s 40mm cannon and one of its Exocet launchers - she was later forced to return to dry-dock. One Argentine sailor was killed and five more injured and the Guerrico was forced to withdraw. Fire from the Guerrico’s 100mm gun out of range of the Carl Gustav and the threat of being outflanked by Argentine Marines forced Lieutenant Mills and his men to surrender with just one man wounded. South Georgia would be recaptured by the British on 25th April 1982, during Operation Paraquet.

Sources:

Images One & Two Source
Image Three Source
Image Four Source

9 years ago 244 notes

Tagged: #History #Military History #Falklands War #South Georgia #Battle of Grytviken #Royal Marines #British History #Argentine Invasion of the Falkland Islands #ARA Guerrico #HMS Endurance #84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle

Defence of the Falklands

On the 2nd April 1982, the Royal Marines of Naval Party 8901 offered up the Falklands only resistance to the overwhelming Argentinian invasion. Argentine Commandos (pictured above) landed in the early hours of April 2nd ahead of the main invasion force and attacked the Marine Barracks and Government House. However, the Royal Marines of Naval Party 8901, made up of 68 Marines and 11 sailors, were not in their barracks and the next day they engaged a column of advancing Argentine Amtracks (Assault Amphibious Vehicle) on the road to Port Stanley’s airfield.

Lieutenant Bill Trollope’s section of Royal Marines occupied positions in houses lining the road and as the Argentine column approached they opened up with GPMGs and 82mm & 66mm anti-tank rockets at a range of 200 metres. The machine gun fire raked the first Amtrack to little effect. Reports from both sides recall that the first volley of anti-tank rockets missed but several of the second volley found their mark. The Argentine’s manouvered off the road under rifle and machine gun fire and began to return fire. Putting a recoilless rifle round into the house where the Marines’ GPMG was set up.

As the rest of the Argentine column deployed to outflank the Royal Marine section withdrew under the cover of white phosphorus grenades. Lt. Trollope’s section was unable to reach Government House and other sections falling back on Government House found Stanley full of Argentine troops and encountered heavy fire at every attempt to cross roads.

Several parties of Royal Marines fell back to Government House defending it for several hours where they were surrounded by approximately 200 Argentine Marines. Before they surrendered they inflicted light casualties on the Argentines killing one Argentine Officer and wounding several of the enemy, before surrendering in the morning. Approximately 100 British militiary personnel surrendered on the Island at 9.30am.

Argentine forces raise their flag outside Government House (source)

The photos above of the Royal Marines being searched and laying prone in the street galvanised the British public’s support for an expedition to recapture the Islands. The Argentine’s had intended the photos to show how none of the Marines were killed or wounded in the hopes that Britain would decide to negotiate rather than intervene militarily. They were wrong and before the end of April the Task Force had been organised and was underway.

Sources:

Image One & Two Source
Image Three Source
Image Four Source

9 years ago 97 notes

Tagged: #History #Military History #Falklands War #Defence of the Falklands #Royal Marines #British History #Naval Party 8901 #Argentine Invasion of the Falkland Islands #Falklands #OTDH #OTD

The Royal Marines

Officially the Royal Marines were founded in 1755, as His Majesty’s Marine Forces, it was not until 1802, at the behest of Admiral Jervis, the Earl of St Vincent that King George II gave them the ‘Royal’ title.

The Royal Marines can trace its heritage back much further than 1755, with a history spanning almost 350 years, almost as long a history as the regular British Army. In 1664, the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot was raised for service during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. This regiment, like many of the time, was privately raised and was one of several to be formed as naval infantry in the style of other European nation’s marine infantry.

By the late 17th century the regiment had become known as the Lord Admiral’s Regiment (the Duke of York and Albany was at the time the Lord High Admiral). The men were uniformed in a rusket/gold coat rather than the red coat of the infantry. Unusually for the time the each man was issued with a musket, while pikes were fading from the European battlefield they remained a diminished feature until the early 1700s. Over the next thirty years other marine infantry regiments were formed with size and number varying with the peaks and troughs of British military campaigns. As a result of transfers and reformations the Royal Marines can trace lineage with a dozen of the British Army’s oldest and best known regiments including the 3rd Foot or ‘Buffs’, and what later became The Rifles.

A Royal Marine wearing the iconic rounded hat and red coat, worn throughout the Napoleonic War (Source) see also image two above.

By 1755, Britain’s marine infantry had been unified into a single formation; His Majesty’s Marine Forces. Consisting of some fifty 200-strong companies these men were dispersed throughout the Royal Navy and were at first commanded by Naval officers rather than dedicated Marine officers, this however changed with time and by the beginning of the 19th century the Marine Forces had become the Royal Marines.

Throughout the Napoleonic War Royal Marines acted as boarding and shore raiding parties as well as shipboard security forces as a loyal force tasked with preventing mutiny and protecting the ship from enemy boarding. In 1804, detachment of Royal Marine Artillery was formed to man the artillery (principally mortars) of the Navy’s bomb ketches. During the War of 1812 it was men of the Royal Marine Artillery launching Congreve Rockets from HMS Erebus that were immortalised in Francis Scott Key’s poem ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ as “rockets’ red glare”.

A Royal Marine Light Infantry at the Battle of Tamai, 1884, wearing grey field dress and armed with a Martini-Henry rifle. (source)

Following the Napoleonic War the Royal Marines continued to be part of the Royal Navy’s establishment. The role of the Marines evolved during the second half of the 19th century into that of light infantry that could act as skirmishers screening either infantry or sailors landing behind them. In 1855 the Royal Marines Light Infantry was formed to act as light troops on shore, the RMLI saw action in countless colonial campaigns throughout the British Empire and during the Boxer Rebellion in China. The Royal Marines also played a prominent part during the First World War, forming part of the Royal Navy’s Naval Division, which in 1914, landed in Belgium to bolster Belgian defences at Antwerp and later took part in the Gallipoli campaign.

Royal Marines Light Infantry, wearing dark blue uniforms, in action during the Egyptian Campaign, 1882. (Source)

The uniform of the Marines evolved steadily over the 300 year history of the corps. Moving from the original russet gold coat, through a progression of steadily simplifying uniforms (see image one) based on the scarlet tunic - with the adoption of dark blue uniform facings in 1802, when the corps became the Royal Marines. By the late 19th century the Royal Marine’s uniform varied greatly depends on where he was in action. During the Egyptian campaign of 1882, the RMLI wore navy blue uniforms with white pith helmets, as seen above. By the time of the Sudan campaign, two years later in 1884, a grey field dress (see above) had been adopted. While Marines serving in the Far East or tropical locales often wore an all white field dress. By the time of the Boxer Rebellion and the outbreak of the First World War the standard field dress of the Marines remained the dark navy blue jacket and trousers with either a field service cap or Wolseley helmet. When the Royal Marines arrived in Antwerp in October 1914, they wore the blue jackets and field service caps seen in images four and five. Throughout the rest of the First World War the Marines would wear the Army’s khaki or sand coloured field dress while in action in Northern France and the Middle East. In 1923, the Royal Marine Light Infantry and Royal Marine Artillery were amalgamated forming the Corps of Royal Marines. During the Second World War the Royal Marines played an invaluable part, taking part in fighting in every theatre of the war providing regular infantry and special forces when they formed Commandos, an elite force the Royal Marines retain to this day.

While the Marines’ uniform often followed the Army’s lead, for the most part they also carried similar weapons. From their inception the Marines had carried firearms, in 1778, the Sea Service Pattern Brown Bess Musket was adopted by the Navy and Marines, it had the advantage of being several inches shorter and over half a pound lighter than the muskets carried by their Army counterparts. By the latter half of the 19th century they carried first the Enfield pattern rifle musket and later the Martini-Henry breechloading rifle (see image three). At the outbreak of the First World War, like the Army, they carried the Lee-Enfield Rifle (see images four & five).

The Royal Marines are a military force with a unique history almost as long as the Royal Navy’s, Britain’s most senior service. Royal Marines have fought in every corner of the globe in campaigns big and small. The uniqueness of their role both on board ship and ashore makes them a truly fascinating corps.

Sources:

Image One Source (a photograph taken c.1970 of a historic evolution of the Marines’ uniform)
Image Two Source: The Thin Red Line: Uniforms of the British Army between 1751 & 1914, D.S.V & B.K. Fosten, (1989)
Image Three Source (Artist’s impression of Royal Marine Light Infantrymen in field service dress c.1877)
Image Four Source (Artist’s impression of Royal Marines c.1912)
Image Five Source (Royal Marines marching through Ostend on their way to join the Siege of Antwerp)
Image Six Source (Men of the Royal Marines Brigade, Belgium c.Sept.-Oct. 1914)

10 years ago Reblogged from Historical Firearms 220 notes

Belgian Army in Action - 1914

The collection of photographs above shows the Belgian Army in action during the first months of World War One. It shows Belgian infantry and cavalry manning hastily prepared defenses, lining the banks of canals and firing on advancing German troops.

The role of the Belgian army during the First World War is often forgotten or charecterised by the slogan ‘Brave Little Belgium’ holding off the invading Germans until they were quickly overwhelmed. The Belgian Army were instrumental in slowing the initial German advance and they performed far better than their allies and the Germans had expected this line of thought still minimises their role. The photographs collected above show the Belgian Army in action during the first months of the war during fighting around Liege, Namur and during the retreat to and defence of Antwerp until late October when they were pushed back and held only a small corner of southwest Belgium.

The Belgian strategy in the event of war was to gather its field army in the centre of the country behind the Gete River while the National Redoubt, a 95 mile long belt of defensive fortifications ringing Antwerp, would hold the Belgian left flank while forts at Liege and Namur would buy the main field army time to mobilise. One of the most concerning issues was that the Belgian Army had never in its history fought a single major engagement, the country’s neutrality until now unbroken, had precluded this. No Belgian general officer had ever commanded troops in the field and none of the troops, even the most seasoned veterans have ever fired a shot in anger or been fired upon.

When war came the Belgian army followed their plans and the forts at Liege and Namur were soon engaged by the enemy. The main Belgian field army concentrated behind the Gete River. However, in the face of modern German heavy artillery Liege fell in just ten days, Namur in just four and Brussels had to be abandoned. The majority of the Belgian Army retreated towards Antwerp fighting delaying actions along the way. By late August the French and British had advanced north into Belgium but had underestimated the weight of the German attack and were forced to retreat leaving the Belgians to face the Germans at Antwerp.

German map showing the German attack on Antwerp and the Belgian withdrawal on the 10th Oct. (source)

A strong German holding force under the command of Hans von Beseler ringed the city in late August. The Siege of Antwerp began on the 28th September with the main Belgian force now holding the city’s defensive lines. On the 28th September, the Germans brought up the heavy artillery that had reduced Liege, Namur and Maubeuge. The outer forts quickly came under heavy fire steadily making the Belgian position untenable. The Belgian army launched a number of division-sized counterattacks, sortieing from the city on three separate occasions. The first on the 24th of August was made in support of British and French forces fighting in southern Belgium, the second sortie saw three infantry divisions supported by cavalry strike southeast reaching as far as Leuven. This was an attempt to draw further German troops north away from the main allied line. The final sortie was made on the 26th September attacked German troops east of Antwerp.

At the Belgian command’s request elements of the British Naval Division arrived in early October with Naval infantry and a brigade of Royal Marines arriving to bolster the city’s defence. Winston Churchill the First Lord of the Admiralty arrived to survey the situation and quickly volunteered to take command of the city’s defence. However, his suggestion was rejected. Further reinforcements were planned with two British divisions landing further west at Ostend but were unable to reach Antwerp before the Belgian Army was forced to abandon the city.

Sailors of the British Naval Division on the march near Antwerp (source)

By the beginning of October, the heavy German artillery was systematically destroying Antwerp’s outer forts and German infantry was probing the Belgian line. On the 2nd October the German’s began attacking in force and the Belgian command began preparations to withdraw west to Ostend if the National Redoubt became untenable. The British Naval Division joined some 80,000 Belgian garrison troops manning the 25 principal forts. The outer forts were indefensible and abandoned by the 4th and the decision to withdraw the main Belgian Army west was made on the 7th October. By the 9th the Belgian Army had withdrawn leaving the garrison troops and the British Naval Division holding the line. The last troops began to withdraw with the British forced to retreat north hoping to loop west however, their line of retreat was cut by German artillery fire and they were forced to cross into neutral Holland where they were interned by the Dutch. About a third of the Belgian garrison met a similar fate while approximately 30,000 Belgian troops were captured the remainder retreated west joining the rest of the Belgian army near Ostend. On the morning of the 10th October Antwerp surrendered.

The remaining Belgian forces took up a position west running between Nieuport and Dixmude. With the Belgian Army exhausted King Albert ordered the sluice gates at Nieuport opened and the coastal plain flooded to impede the German offensive. For the next four years the Belgian Army held onto this corner of western Belgium while the German Army occupied the rest of the their country. In 1918, during the Hundred Days offensive the Belgian Army took to the offensive with the rest of the allied forces pushing the Germans back.

Image Sources:

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10

More on the Belgian Army during World War One here

10 years ago Reblogged from Historical Firearms 93 notes

Belgian Army in Action - 1914

The collection of photographs above shows the Belgian Army in action during the first months of World War One. It shows Belgian infantry and cavalry manning hastily prepared defenses, lining the banks of canals and firing on advancing German troops.

The role of the Belgian army during the First World War is often forgotten or charecterised by the slogan ‘Brave Little Belgium’ holding off the invading Germans until they were quickly overwhelmed. The Belgian Army were instrumental in slowing the initial German advance and they performed far better than their allies and the Germans had expected this line of thought still minimises their role. The photographs collected above show the Belgian Army in action during the first months of the war during fighting around Liege, Namur and during the retreat to and defence of Antwerp until late October when they were pushed back and held only a small corner of southwest Belgium.

The Belgian strategy in the event of war was to gather its field army in the centre of the country behind the Gete River while the National Redoubt, a 95 mile long belt of defensive fortifications ringing Antwerp, would hold the Belgian left flank while forts at Liege and Namur would buy the main field army time to mobilise. One of the most concerning issues was that the Belgian Army had never in its history fought a single major engagement, the country’s neutrality until now unbroken, had precluded this. No Belgian general officer had ever commanded troops in the field and none of the troops, even the most seasoned veterans have ever fired a shot in anger or been fired upon.

When war came the Belgian army followed their plans and the forts at Liege and Namur were soon engaged by the enemy. The main Belgian field army concentrated behind the Gete River. However, in the face of modern German heavy artillery Liege fell in just ten days, Namur in just four and Brussels had to be abandoned. The majority of the Belgian Army retreated towards Antwerp fighting delaying actions along the way. By late August the French and British had advanced north into Belgium but had underestimated the weight of the German attack and were forced to retreat leaving the Belgians to face the Germans at Antwerp.

German map showing the German attack on Antwerp and the Belgian withdrawal on the 10th Oct. (source)

A strong German holding force under the command of Hans von Beseler ringed the city in late August. The Siege of Antwerp began on the 28th September with the main Belgian force now holding the city’s defensive lines. On the 28th September, the Germans brought up the heavy artillery that had reduced Liege, Namur and Maubeuge. The outer forts quickly came under heavy fire steadily making the Belgian position untenable. The Belgian army launched a number of division-sized counterattacks, sortieing from the city on three separate occasions. The first on the 24th of August was made in support of British and French forces fighting in southern Belgium, the second sortie saw three infantry divisions supported by cavalry strike southeast reaching as far as Leuven. This was an attempt to draw further German troops north away from the main allied line. The final sortie was made on the 26th September attacked German troops east of Antwerp.

At the Belgian command’s request elements of the British Naval Division arrived in early October with Naval infantry and a brigade of Royal Marines arriving to bolster the city’s defence. Winston Churchill the First Lord of the Admiralty arrived to survey the situation and quickly volunteered to take command of the city’s defence. However, his suggestion was rejected. Further reinforcements were planned with two British divisions landing further west at Ostend but were unable to reach Antwerp before the Belgian Army was forced to abandon the city.

Sailors of the British Naval Division on the march near Antwerp (source)

By the beginning of October, the heavy German artillery was systematically destroying Antwerp’s outer forts and German infantry was probing the Belgian line. On the 2nd October the German’s began attacking in force and the Belgian command began preparations to withdraw west to Ostend if the National Redoubt became untenable. The British Naval Division joined some 80,000 Belgian garrison troops manning the 25 principal forts. The outer forts were indefensible and abandoned by the 4th and the decision to withdraw the main Belgian Army west was made on the 7th October. By the 9th the Belgian Army had withdrawn leaving the garrison troops and the British Naval Division holding the line. The last troops began to withdraw with the British forced to retreat north hoping to loop west however, their line of retreat was cut by German artillery fire and they were forced to cross into neutral Holland where they were interned by the Dutch. About a third of the Belgian garrison met a similar fate while approximately 30,000 Belgian troops were captured the remainder retreated west joining the rest of the Belgian army near Ostend. On the morning of the 10th October Antwerp surrendered.

The remaining Belgian forces took up a position west running between Nieuport and Dixmude. With the Belgian Army exhausted King Albert ordered the sluice gates at Nieuport opened and the coastal plain flooded to impede the German offensive. For the next four years the Belgian Army held onto this corner of western Belgium while the German Army occupied the rest of the their country. In 1918, during the Hundred Days offensive the Belgian Army took to the offensive with the rest of the allied forces pushing the Germans back.

Image Sources:

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10

More on the Belgian Army during World War One here

10 years ago 93 notes

Landing Craft Assault

On 6th June the majority of Allied troops initially arriving on the Normandy Beaches landed in one of two craft; the American Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or the British Landing Craft Assault (LCA).

The Landing Craft Assault, was developed by Thornycroft in answer to a call for a new landing craft for the Royal Navy. Following trials in early 1939 the Thornycroft design was adopted into service as the Landing Craft Assault. It saw service throughout the war, during the Dunkirk evacuations a dozen LCAs rescued some 2,000 troops from the beaches. It was later used during early Commando raids against Nazi-Occupied Europe and later in full scale landings in Europe, the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean.

The LCA was comparable to the LCVP in a number of aspects; capable of carrying a platoon of infantry (36 men). It was powered by two V8 Ford engines which gave it a speed of approximately 8 knots while and displaced 9 tons, it was 42 feet long by 10 feet wide, with enough room for 3 rows of seats (giving the passengers a more stable ride than the US LCVP).

Unlike its American counterpart the LCVP the LCA was protected by armour plate, securing it against much small arms fire. It could be armed with either Lewis Guns or Brens, it could also be fitted out with spigot mortars. The LCA’s well was divided at the bow by a bulkhead mounting 2 armour plate doors to protect passengers when the forward ramp was lowered. While the LCA was unable to transport vehicles like its American counterpart it was able to carry supplies and other equipment.

During D-Day over 400 LCAs went into action with some specially modified to launch grappling hooks for troops climbing the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. During the landings the boats were used by British, Canadian and American troops, 184 boats were lost.

Sources:

Image One Source
Image Two Source
Image Three Source
Image Four Source
‘Landing Craft’ (source)

Read about the LCVP here

10 years ago 16 notes

Tagged: #History #Military History #WWII #D-Day #DDAY70 #D-Day 70th Anniversary #Landing Craft Assault #LCA #LCVP #Normandy Landings #Commando Raid #Landing Craft #World War Two #D Day #Operation Neptune #Royal Navy #Royal Marines #Royal Canadian Navy #Naval History

The First Helicopterborne Air Assault

On the November 6, 1956, 650 men of 45 Commando, Royal Marines conducted the first ever helicopter air assault, landing at Port Said at the mouth of the Suez Canal as part of Operation Musketeer. The Anglo-French response to Egypt’s attempts to nationalize the Suez Canal.

Along with 45 Commando, over 20 tonnes of equipment and supplies were also air-lifted on-shore from Royal Navy carriers HMS Ocean and HMS Theseus (see photos above) part of the Anglo-French naval task force stationed 9 miles out to sea. 45 Commando were landed under fire, with several helicopters hit, but following 42 and 40 Commando who had landed in a beach assault at dawn earlier that day.

For Operation Musketeer the British used the aircraft of the newly formed Joint Experimental Helicopter Unit, an inter-service experimental formation tasked with developing tactics for the use of helicopters comprised of men fro the Royal Navy, Army Air Corps and the RAF. Their aircraft included ten Westland Whirlwind’s flying from HMS Theseus and Bristol Sycamore’s flown from HMS Ocean. The Westland Whirlwind’s were capable of carrying up to 10 men or roughly 1,500 lbs of equipment while the Sycamore’s could carry 2 or 3 passengers or approximately 1,000 lbs of supplies or equipment.

In the run up to the operation 45 Commando and the Joint Experimental Helicopter Unit had had little time for operational training with only one day to practice embarkation and landing with the Royal Marines. However, Lieutenant colonel J.F.T. Scott, the commanding officer of the Joint Helicopter Unit, allayed fears of unpreparedness stating: “the helicopter is a simple means of transport and needs little rehearsal as far as the soldier is concerned.”

45 Commando and the Joint Helicopter Unit had initially been earmarked for a more daring objective, securing a vital bridge-head at Raswa. However, fears of casualties caused by potentially heavy ground fire saw this plan abandoned.

45 Commando and their HQ unit were landed on a stretch of waste ground within site of the Ferdinand de Lesseps statue at the mouth of the port (see images #1 & #5). This brought the men ashore much faster than if they had been ferried in the 9 miles by landing craft and 45 Commando were able to immediately reinforce 42 & 40 Commando who were engaged in house to house fighting in the town where Egyptian forces were putting up stiff resistance.

For the rest of the operation the helicopters of the Joint Helicopter Unit were tasked with bringing in supplies and ammunition and airlifting casualties out of the port. The operation ended when international pressure forced a ceasefire to be called on the 7th November.

The Suez Crisis led to the fall of the British and later the French government and was a serious blow to British international prestige - despite the tactical successes of the operations undertaken by the Anglo-French forces. While not as well known as later helicopter assaults during the French war in Algeria or more famously during the Vietnam War, 45 Commando’s landing at Port Said set a tactical precedent as the first operational landing of troops by helicopter in a combat zone.

Source:

Image One & Two Source
Image Three Source
Image Four Source
British Naval Aviation: The First 100 Years, ed. T. Benbow (2011)
JEHU Over Suez (source)
Westland “Whirlwind” (source)
Oxford Companion to Military History, ed. R. Holmes (2001)
The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army, ed. D. Chandler (1995) - source for map of assault

10 years ago 56 notes

Recent Recap

It has been a while since I posted a recap, I haven’t had a chance to post a often as I’d like this month so I apologise for that! However, I think there’s been some pretty interesting posts, ranging from the revolutionary Whitworth Rifle to the Hyde Light Rifle, to the huge Webley No.1 pistol and a look at contemporary Thompson Submachine Gun advertising. There have also been posts looking at the History of the Royal Marines and the Royal Artillery as well as posts on some other iconic and forgotten firearms.

On another note this is actually Historical Firearms’ 702nd post, passing the 700 post mark is really something. So as always thank you all for reading, liking, reblogging and occasionally messaging.

____________________________________________________

Firearms:

Webley No.1
Colt Burgess
Thompson Submachine Gun Adverts Pt. 1
Thompson Submachine Gun Adverts Pt.2
The Whitworth Rifle
United Defense M42
Karabiner Modell 1931 (K31)
The Bendix Hyde Light Rifle

Miscellaneous History Posts:

The Royal Marines
The Royal Regiment of Artillery
The Birkenhead Drill: Women & Children First
Ingenuity In the Field
The Menin Gate

Quote of the Day:

All this months history quotes of the day can be found here

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If you have any requests for firearms you like to see on the page then please feel free to let me know!

10 years ago 19 notes

The Royal Marines

Officially the Royal Marines were founded in 1755, as His Majesty’s Marine Forces, it was not until 1802, at the behest of Admiral Jervis, the Earl of St Vincent that King George II gave them the ‘Royal’ title.

The Royal Marines can trace its heritage back much further than 1755, with a history spanning almost 350 years, almost as long a history as the regular British Army. In 1664, the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot was raised for service during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. This regiment, like many of the time, was privately raised and was one of several to be formed as naval infantry in the style of other European nation’s marine infantry.

By the late 17th century the regiment had become known as the Lord Admiral’s Regiment (the Duke of York and Albany was at the time the Lord High Admiral). The men were uniformed in a rusket/gold coat rather than the red coat of the infantry. Unusually for the time the each man was issued with a musket, while pikes were fading from the European battlefield they remained a diminished feature until the early 1700s. Over the next thirty years other marine infantry regiments were formed with size and number varying with the peaks and troughs of British military campaigns. As a result of transfers and reformations the Royal Marines can trace lineage with a dozen of the British Army’s oldest and best known regiments including the 3rd Foot or 'Buffs’, and what later became The Rifles.

A Royal Marine wearing the iconic rounded hat and red coat, worn throughout the Napoleonic War (Source) see also image two above.

By 1755, Britain’s marine infantry had been unified into a single formation; His Majesty’s Marine Forces. Consisting of some fifty 200-strong companies these men were dispersed throughout the Royal Navy and were at first commanded by Naval officers rather than dedicated Marine officers, this however changed with time and by the beginning of the 19th century the Marine Forces had become the Royal Marines.

Throughout the Napoleonic War Royal Marines acted as boarding and shore raiding parties as well as shipboard security forces as a loyal force tasked with preventing mutiny and protecting the ship from enemy boarding. In 1804, detachment of Royal Marine Artillery was formed to man the artillery (principally mortars) of the Navy’s bomb ketches. During the War of 1812 it was men of the Royal Marine Artillery launching Congreve Rockets from HMS Erebus that were immortalised in Francis Scott Key’s poem ’The Star Spangled Banner’ as “rockets’ red glare”.

A Royal Marine Light Infantry at the Battle of Tamai, 1884, wearing grey field dress and armed with a Martini-Henry rifle. (source)

Following the Napoleonic War the Royal Marines continued to be part of the Royal Navy’s establishment. The role of the Marines evolved during the second half of the 19th century into that of light infantry that could act as skirmishers screening either infantry or sailors landing behind them. In 1855 the Royal Marines Light Infantry was formed to act as light troops on shore, the RMLI saw action in countless colonial campaigns throughout the British Empire and during the Boxer Rebellion in China. The Royal Marines also played a prominent part during the First World War, forming part of the Royal Navy’s Naval Division, which in 1914, landed in Belgium to bolster Belgian defences at Antwerp and later took part in the Gallipoli campaign.

Royal Marines Light Infantry, wearing dark blue uniforms, in action during the Egyptian Campaign, 1882. (Source)

The uniform of the Marines evolved steadily over the 300 year history of the corps. Moving from the original russet gold coat, through a progression of steadily simplifying uniforms (see image one) based on the scarlet tunic - with the adoption of dark blue uniform facings in 1802, when the corps became the Royal Marines. By the late 19th century the Royal Marine’s uniform varied greatly depends on where he was in action. During the Egyptian campaign of 1882, the RMLI wore navy blue uniforms with white pith helmets, as seen above. By the time of the Sudan campaign, two years later in 1884, a grey field dress (see above) had been adopted. While Marines serving in the Far East or tropical locales often wore an all white field dress. By the time of the Boxer Rebellion and the outbreak of the First World War the standard field dress of the Marines remained the dark navy blue jacket and trousers with either a field service cap or Wolseley helmet. When the Royal Marines arrived in Antwerp in October 1914, they wore the blue jackets and field service caps seen in images four and five. Throughout the rest of the First World War the Marines would wear the Army’s khaki or sand coloured field dress while in action in Northern France and the Middle East. In 1923, the Royal Marine Light Infantry and Royal Marine Artillery were amalgamated forming the Corps of Royal Marines. During the Second World War the Royal Marines played an invaluable part, taking part in fighting in every theatre of the war providing regular infantry and special forces when they formed Commandos, an elite force the Royal Marines retain to this day.

While the Marines’ uniform often followed the Army’s lead, for the most part they also carried similar weapons. From their inception the Marines had carried firearms, in 1778, the Sea Service Pattern Brown Bess Musket was adopted by the Navy and Marines, it had the advantage of being several inches shorter and over half a pound lighter than the muskets carried by their Army counterparts. By the latter half of the 19th century they carried first the Enfield pattern rifle musket and later the Martini-Henry breechloading rifle (see image three). At the outbreak of the First World War, like the Army, they carried the Lee-Enfield Rifle (see images four & five).

The Royal Marines are a military force with a unique history almost as long as the Royal Navy’s, Britain’s most senior service. Royal Marines have fought in every corner of the globe in campaigns big and small. The uniqueness of their role both on board ship and ashore makes them a truly fascinating corps.

Sources:

Image One Source (a photograph taken c.1970 of a historic evolution of the Marines’ uniform)
Image Two Source: The Thin Red Line: Uniforms of the British Army between 1751 & 1914, D.S.V & B.K. Fosten, (1989)
Image Three Source (Artist’s impression of Royal Marine Light Infantrymen in field service dress c.1877)
Image Four Source (Artist’s impression of Royal Marines c.1912)
Image Five Source (Royal Marines marching through Ostend on their way to join the Siege of Antwerp)
Image Six Source (Men of the Royal Marines Brigade, Belgium c.Sept.-Oct. 1914)

10 years ago 220 notes

Ian Fleming & 30 Assault Unit
The memo above shows the conception of a new unit under the control of British Naval Intelligence in 1942. Written by Ian Fleming (initialed with an ‘F’ at the bottom), who later became world famous for his literary...

Ian Fleming & 30 Assault Unit

The memo above shows the conception of a new unit under the control of British Naval Intelligence in 1942. Written by Ian Fleming (initialed with an ‘F’ at the bottom), who later became world famous for his literary creation - James Bond. During World War Two Fleming was a member of the the Naval intelligence team working from Room 32 at the Admiralty. Commander Fleming worked as Admiral Godfrey, the Director of Naval Intelligence’s assistant throughout the war.

The memo itself outlines Fleming’s plan for a special commando unit which would advance with allied forces and attempt to capture any enemy technology, information or personnel which might have been useful to the allies. At the bottom left of the memo we can see Admiral Godfrey’s hand written note agreeing to the formation of the unit: ‘yes, most decidedly’. They saw action in Italy in 1943 and in France and Germany in 1944/45. The unit became known as 30 Assault Unit (AU) Royal Navy, they were specially trained in hand to hand combat, information gathering, use of explosives, safe cracking and some members specialised as parachutists and frogmen.

The Unit was highly successful capturing among other things the entire German naval archive and an Enigma encoding machine. They were also instrumental in the capture of U-boat admiral and Hitler’s successor Admiral Karl Donitz. After the war Fleming would go on to use the experiences and skills he had learned while with Naval Intelligence in his famous novels. Following the end of the war 30AU was disbanded in 1946. However, the unit lives on as 30 Commando Royal Marines was reactivated in 2011 as a Information Exploitation Group, trained in information gathering, targeting and surveillance.

Image Source

11 years ago 39 notes

Tagged: #Miscellaneous history #Ian Fleming #Royal Marines #history #espionage #special forces #James Bond #Naval Intelligence #30 AU #30 Commando #WWII #second world war

The Maxim Gun: Britain’s First Machine Gun

Above are a collection of photographs showing the Maxim gun in action in Belgium and France during the early stages of the Great War. While the Maxim is an iconic machine gun in its own right - the grandfather of all those which followed it. It is the Vickers Machine Gun, chambered in .303, which replaced it in British Service in 1912 which is most often seen in photographs from the war.

The Vickers machine gun was a refined Maxim gun which became Britain’s main medium machine gun for the duration of WWI and WWII and on into the 1960s. However, during the early stages of the war the number of Vickers available could not match demand and some older Maxims were rechambered from their original .45in(11.5mm) calibre into the British army’s standard .303 cartridge and allocated to battalions on their way to Flanders.
British battalions at the beginning of the war each had a Machine Gun Section, commanded by a lieutenant, made up of two 6 man squads operating the battalions’ two heavy machine guns. As the war progressed the number of machine guns was increased, before they were seconded to the Machine Gun Corps in 1916 and the Lewis Gun became the standard machine gun of British line battalions.

The Maxim first saw limited use with the British Army during the First Matabele War in 1893 but it officially entered British Service in 1896, seeing action during the First Boer War. In 1912 it was replaced by the improved Vickers however, as the small professional British Army mobilised in 1914 it was clear there were not enough Vickers to equip each battalion destined for France. The rechambered Maxims were allocated to regimental Machine Gun Sections with both the Army and the Royal Marines. Alongside the newer Vickers It saw action during the early stages of the war at the Battles of Mons, Le Cateau, Siege of Antwerp and the First Battle of the Marne. However, as war production stepped up the Vickers became more widely available and the venerable old Maxims were replaced.

Image Captions:

Image One: A company of British troops line a road during the Siege of Antwerp in September 1914. A two man machine gun team tends to a Maxim with an unusual, large pre-war quad-pod.
Source
Image Two: A British Maxim team firing from a woodland position c.1914.
Source
Image Three: The Machine Gun Section of the Queen’s Westminster Rifles poses with their Maxims before embarkation in October 1914.
Source
Image Four: A three man machine gun team of the Royal Sussex Regiment train their Maxim in a shallow scrape trench c. late 1914/early 1915.
Source

Article Sources:

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Source
Military Small Arms, G Smith, (1994)

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11 years ago 45 notes

Tagged: #Hiram Maxim #Maxim Gun #Maxim #Vickers machine gun #Machine Gun #WWI #First World War #Firearms #Gun #weapons #Battle of Mons #Battle of the Frontiers #History #Military History #British Army #Royal Marines #Siege of Antwerp #Great War #firearms history