@historicalfirearms / www.historicalfirearms.info
There have been a considerable number of sightings of the MP-443 pistols in Ukraine over the past two months, unsurprising as it is the Russian armed forces issue sidearm. In this video we look at the pistol's history, design and use in Ukraine.
During the First World War Germany struggled to produce its own tanks, with no more than 20 A7Vs being built, instead the Imperial German Army made liberal use of captured allied tanks.
The British Army's first dedicated infantry anti-tank weapon was a rifle grenade. Rifle grenades became extremely popular during the First World War and when the tank threat emerged a rifle grenade seemed like the ideal answer.
Watch the video below:
Check out the accompanying article for this video at www.armourersbench.com.
On Monday it was announced that the UK would send Ukraine several shipments of light anti-armour weapons. The weapons were taken from the British Army's stock of NLAW or Next Generation Anti-Tank Weapon. In this video we'll take a look at the situation that led to the shipments and at the weapon itself and how it works.
Check out the video below:
The VHS-2 bullpup rifle manufactured by Croatia’s HS Produkt became one of the most frequently seen rifles during the Iraqi counter-offensives against ISIS during 2015-17. The rifle regularly appeared in news reports and social media posts and became somewhat synonymous with the fighting for Fallujah and Mosul.
Check out this week’s Armourer’s Bench video on the VHS-2 in Iraq below!
The No.36 or Mills Bomb was one of the longest serving grenades, developed during the First World War, it was manufactured across the British Commonwealth during the Second World War and after.
In this video we'll use some brilliant newsreel footage from New Zealand to examine how the Mills Bomb (or No.36 Grenade) was manufactured during the war. We also take a look at the design and history of the No.36 which served for over 50 years.
A wild MCEM-2 appears!
Recently, while looking though British Army Cold War training films, I stumbled upon something I never expected to see: a clip of an MCEM-2 firing.
Check out the video below:
The MCEM-2 (Machine Carbine Experimental Model No.2) was a small, compact, innovative submachine gun developed towards the end of the Second World War. In this video we will examine the gun's origins and theorise about how it came to appear in a 1953 training film - long after it had been rejected!
Check out my full-length blog accompanying the video here.
Did you know that the Royal Bermuda Regiment used the Ruger Mini-14 as its service rifle for over 30 years? If not, this video will give you the low down!
Check out this week's Armourer's Bench video for more:
Read the accompanying article over on the TAB website here.
In this final video of the Rhineland Campaign Weapons series we take a look at the little known role of the British and Commonwealth forces’ Vickers Guns. With the help of the Vickers MG Collection & Research Association we recreated a platoon line consisting of 4 Vickers Guns to recreate the Pepperpot tactics used during Operation Veritable – the western Allies’ invasion of Germany.
In this video we examine how Vickers Medium Machine Guns were used en masse to soften up enemy positions before Operation Veritable began and during the subsequent advance into the Rhineland. The Vickers was used alongside artillery, mortars and even anti-aircraft guns in what was known as a ‘pepperpot’ fire plan – where the focus was on weight of fire. The Vickers supported the advance through out the campaign and in this video we aimed to capture some of the feel of what those pepperpot bombardments might have been like – albeit on much, much smaller scale.
Last weekend at the We Have Ways podcast's history festival the Airborne Assault Museum brought along a very interesting piece of history - a PIAT with Arnhem provenance. The PIAT had allegedly been dropped during Operation Market Garden but not used.
At some point after the battle it was discovered by locals and handed into the Doorwerth Museum, west of Oosterbeek, and was subsequently gifted the the Airborne Assault Museum in the 1950s. The PIAT is in great shape, albeit deactivated, and it was a pleasure to take a look at a weapon which could be traced back to the battle.
In this video we dive into another item from the TAB Reference Collection. An article taken from a 1955 edition of the Illustrated London News which looks at the British Army's newest anti-tank weapon - The B.A.T Gun!
The L2 B.A.T Gun was a recoilless rifle developed to replace the heavier 17pdr Anti-Tank guns then in service. The B.A.T and its successors remained in service throughout the Cold War.
Check out the accompanying blog for this video for more photos, here.
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of travelling to the Tank Museum to film some segments for the new documentary on the Rhineland Campaign – ‘Rhineland 45‘. We looked at various small arms used during the campaign ranging from Panzerfausts and Bazookas to MG-42s and M1A1 carbines.
Not all of the segments we filmed discussing the weapons could be included in the finished documentary, so I’m pleased to share a couple here. This one Brings Up The PIAT!
Shoot to kill had long been a British Army slogan, appearing in numerous training films and pamphlets, but in the late 70s a need introductory pamphlet on marksmanship filed it on its head. In this video we take a look inside an original copy of Shoot To Live.
In this week’s Armourer’s Bench video I take a look at some intriguing wartime makeshift/homemade vertical front grips for STEN MKIIs. Examples found so far include grips used by Commandos while training in Egypt, as well as similar front grips seen in Libya and Burma.
Check out the video below:
You can find the full accompanying blog over on the TAB website, here.
In this video we take a look at an interesting Commando knife variant seen at the Combined Training Centre at Kabrit in Egypt in 1943. The knife isn’t the classic Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife often seen in the hands of Second World War Commandos. Instead it appears to be an old SMLE bayonet adapted into a commando knife!
Check out the video below:
On the 14th May 1940, the British Government announced the formation of the Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard). But with few weapons available to equip the new militia force some units improvised.
A Hampshire Home Guard unit appear to have improvised an innovative incendiary weapon. With little information available lets see what we can learn from the remarkable colour archival footage.
Check out my full accompanying article for this video here.
