Home Guard Improvised Incendiary Weapon

On the 14th May 1940, the British Government announced the formation of the Local Defence Volunteers. By the summer of 1940 nearly 1.5 million men had volunteered to serve. The force was later renamed the Home Guard in July 1940 but remained under-equipped throughout the summer of 1940. Many of the newly raised militia units had just ‘LDV’ arm bands, some civilian firearms and improvised weapons, as uniforms and service weapons were in short supply.

I recently came across a really interesting piece of footage showing a Hampshire Home Guard unit training with an ‘incendiary weapon’. With few heavy weapons available during 1940, some Home Guard units improvised. This remarkable original colour footage appears to show a reasonably effective incendiary weapon of some sort. But beyond what we can see we know very little about the weapon.

The footage shows a battery of five launchers, each seemingly with a 3 man crew. One man aiming, another loading and another firing. The footage is undated but from their arm bands we can see that the men are Home Guard so definitely post July 1940. The men also appear to be quite well equipped with caps, denim trousers and blouses and belts. No webbing is seen but we can potentially date the footage to between late 1940 and mid-1941.

*Crews dash to their launchers. Note the rifle stock-shaped pieces to the side of the weapons which appear to have been used to aim the launcher*

The incendiary weapon itself is extremely intriguing! I haven’t seen a similar weapon before and I couldn’t find any direct reference to it in the available original documents, newspapers or photos. The footage comes from the Wessex Film and Sound Archive, it is described as showing Home Guard men from Swanmore, a rural village in Hampshire, demonstrating the weapons. Before the incendiary weapon is demonstrated we see a company sized force of Home Guard parading, without rifles or other equipment, and then a single Home Guard member demonstrates loading an SMLE. From the footage we can get an idea of how the weapon would have worked.

*Three-man crews sit by their weapons note the troughs projecting from the front of the launchers*

The men run to the launchers, which appear to be made of wooden boards. Beneath them are rifle stock shaped pieces which the man at the rear seems to shoulder – probably to aim the weapon. The other two crew members kneel either side of the launcher. The footage then cuts away to another angle from the other side and shows one of the kneeling men hitting the rear of the projectile with a hammer. Then with a flash and puff of smoke the projectile launches forward. The man who aimed the weapon appears to have moved away, out of shot. Frustratingly the footage is a bit underexposed and quite dark so we can see too much more detail but we can see that the chap with the hammer is definitely hitting the rear of what looks like a length cylinder. The cylinder shoots to the rear while a projectile fires forward and the launcher’s crew look downrange.

A somewhat low resolution close-up of the launcher. Note the crew member lying behind it aiming it along the wooden piece on the right. The projectile and launch cylinder sit in a trough while behind appears to be a shield to protect the crew member aiming

We then get footage showing what seem to be a series of impacts, likely from the projectile’s fired by the launchers. Then we get another clip of the men running to man the launchers and some more shots of the incendiary weapons exploding. From the available footage its pretty difficult to theorise how the launchers work. They appear to be using an almost proto-recoilless rifle-like principle with the launch cylinder shooting backwards and the projectile leaving the cylinder and firing towards the target. The crew member with a hammer may be hitting a percussion cap to detonate some black powder which projects the incendiary bomb. This system may have been developed to remove the need for a fixed, pressure bearing barrel. Making the weapon much simpler to manufacture.

*The effect down range – the target well alight*

The footage doesn’t give us too much indication of the range of the weapon but it’s distant enough that the men firing the weapon don’t appear to recoil when the projectile hits the target. The incendiary effect downrange is actually quite impressive and a battery of five of the launchers would have been an impressive sight and perhaps quite useful as a road ambush weapon which was something the Home Guard focused heavily on at the time.
It wasn’t until later in 1941 that sub-artillery like the Smith Gun, Northover Projector and the Blacker Bombard began to enter service with the Home Guard. Until then some of the units took it upon themselves to create their own weapons, improvising contraptions like the one featured in this video.

Update 28/07/21:

The weapon somewhat fits the description of the ‘Jones-Wise Projector’ shared by David Lister in his book Forgotten Tanks and Guns. Thanks to BettongMI who brought this to my attention in the comment section of the video. The weapon was apparently developed by a pair of Home Guard officers and while turned down for regular service was used by some elements of the Home Guard in southern England, at least until official sub-artillery began to enter service.

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Bibliography

Home Guard and home-movies in Swanmore, Wessex Film and Sound Archive via the BFI, (source)

Britain’s Final Defence: Arming the Home Guard, 1940-1944, D. Clarke (2016)

Forgotten Tanks and Guns of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, D. Lister (2018)

Fighting On Film: The War Game (1966)

This week we tackle a truly harrowing film. Arguably director Peter Watkins’ finest work, 1966’s ‘The War Game’. An anti-nuclear war film that takes Watkins’ pseudo-documentary style to its pinnacle to tell the story of what a Britain during a nuclear war might look like. Suppressed by the BBC and government the film still won an Oscar. We are joined by author and host of the Atomic Hobo podcast, Julie McDowall to discuss this very important film.

The episode is also available on all other podcast platforms, you can find them here.

Here’s some stills from the films:

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Thanks for listening!

‘Paper Tiger’ – PIAT Scene Analysis

We return to the Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank’s long and storied on-screen career. This time we are examining a scene from ‘Paper Tiger’ (1975). It’s an interesting film, and certainly not one you’d expect a PIAT to pop up in! David Niven plays Mr Bradbury, a tutor to a young Japanese boy. Bradbury is a Walter Mitty-like character that regales the child with made up tales of his wartime escapades.

Early in the film Bradbury describes a battle in France in October 1944. Niven’s Character is shown to be a member of the Grenadier Guards and receivers orders to take an enemy pill box. Bradbury describes how he attacked the German position single handed. The sequence begins with what looks like a platoon making a frontal assault.

Niven receives a call from his commanding officer and then asks his Sgt to hand him ‘the bazooka’. But it’s not a Bazooka he’s handed but a PIAT! Now it’s quite the faux pa’s to call a PIAT a Bazooka but I imagine the script called for one and the film armourer brought along British weapons to fit the action involving the Grenadier Guards.

Niven’s character then charges across the ground in front of the pillbox. He takes cover in a shell crater and we can see that the bomb loaded into the tray is painted black with a yellow stripe – this denotes that its actually an inert drill round. – If we look closely inside the yellow stripe it also appears to have the words ‘drill use’ written on it. Note how far forward the bomb appears in the bomb support – this suggests that the weapon isn’t cocked and that the bomb has just been slid down onto the spigot to make it look loaded.

Before he can take on the pillbox a German armoured fighting vehicle (which is actually a disguised American M8 Greyhound) crests the ridge. Niven takes aim with the PIAT and knocks it out. As he aims, we can see the PIAT has the later pattern 3 aperture rear sight rather than the earlier 2 aperture. The apertures are for 50, 80 and 110 yards. The PIAT, however, is missing its webbing butt pad and gaiter cheek rest. But we can see the white indirect aiming line painted along the top of the PIAT for use in the light mortar role!

As the Greyhounds crew bails out Niven draws his revolver and shoots the crew with a style that pastiches many war films. Leaving his PIAT Niven runs forward and we see that the spigot is forward in the bomb tray – this means he would have had to manually re-cock the weapon before firing again! As he runs we can see he has another PIAT bomb handing from his belt. I’ve never seen any contemporary photos or documents referencing this method of carrying bombs – in reality they would have been carried in a 3-bomb bomb carrier.

He throws a No. 36 (Mills) grenade into the pillbox with perfect aim. Another funny nod to a common war movie trope! The bunker is knocked out and the enemy surrender en masse. It’s an interesting little scene, Niven as always is great and of course as a veteran of the war and an officer he would have been familiar with the PIAT.

Check out the rest of our videos looking at on screen PIAT portrayals here.

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FoF Show & Tell #2 – ‘The 12th Man’ (2017) & ‘The Outpost’ (2020)

Join us for the second edition of our Show & Tell series were we look at the escape and evasion epic ‘The 12th Man’ (2017) and a modern last stand movie ‘The Outpost’ (2020)!

The episode is also available on all other podcast platforms, you can find them here.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @FightingOnFilm and check out the new Fighting On Film website here.

Thanks for listening!

3D Print A PIAT Round!

My friend Martin and the guys at Lead, Thread & Bread Reenactment Supplies on Malta have very kindly put together a couple of 3D models of the PIAT bomb and shared them with us. They’re available for TAB Patreon supporters to download here – www.patreon.com/posts/51046435 This is just an extra thank you perk for your support!

Massive thanks to Martin for offering the 3D model and you should definitely check out Lead, Thread & Bread here – www.facebook.com/LTBmalta/ & www.lead-thread-bread.com

Of course if you don’t have a 3D printer handy, then there are other ‘thank you’ perks available too including personal, handwritten thank you notes on custom illustrated postcards featuring an illustration of the internals of the HK G11 & stickers! Check those out here!

Fighting On Film: Men In War (1957)

This week we return to Korea. Following on from our look at ‘A Hill In Korea‘ a couple of weeks ago, in this episode we discuss ‘Men in War‘ (1957). Based on Van Van Praag’s 1949 novel ‘Day Without End‘ and directed by Anthony Mann, ‘Men in War‘ follows a platoon of US soldiers which have been cut off by sudden North Korean advances. They must fight their way to their objective. Starring Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray, tension rises throughout the film climaxing with a hard fought infantry battle to take an enemy held hill.

The episode is also available on all other podcast platforms, you can find them here.

Here’s some stills from the films:

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @FightingOnFilm and check out the new Fighting On Film website here.

Thanks for listening!

Clement Attlee’s Curious MkII STEN Front Grip

I was recently I was taking a look through the Imperial War Museums’ online image collection when I found a pair of very interesting photographs taken in Scotland in April 1942. They show Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee handling a STEN MkII submachine gun while visiting Polish troops. Most interestingly though is the folding front grip which has been added to the Sten!

*Clement Attlee with STEN MkII (Imperial War Museum)*

The MkII, introduced in August 1941, did not have a folding front grip as standard. The earlier MkI had had a front folding grip, but the MkI*, introduced in October 1942, had eliminated this to speed up production. The original caption of this photo reads:

“Mr Attlee tries the weight and feel of the Sten Sub-machine gun used by the Paratroops.”

Attlee was visiting the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade during a visit to the 1st Polish Corps) at Cupar in Scotland. In the photos he’s accompanied by Colonel Stanisław Sosabowski, the commander of the brigade. In this second photograph, Attlee is holding the Sten by its trigger mechanism cover and we can see the folding grip more clearly.

It appears to be made up of a band of steel which slid onto the barrel nut housing – much like the later MkV foregrip. The grip appears to possibly pivot on a rivet and the grip itself appears to be tubular metal. Sadly the photos are fairly low resolution so we can’t see too much more detail.

These were the only two photos of the grip I could find and I haven’t yet been able to find any documentary references to them. It may be that the grip was experimental and provided to the Polish paratroops for testing or it was an adaptation unique to the unit – perhaps something the unit’s armourer made. I’ll need to do more research in the future to try and find out more about the curious STEN accessory!

For more on the STEN check out our video on the origins of the STEN and it’s name below:

Bibliography:

The Polish Army In Britain, 1940-1947 series, Imperial War Museum, H 18884 & H 18883

Panther vs M3 Lee

I came across some intriguing newsreel footage while doing some archival digging that shows an Allied M3 medium tank pitted against a German Panther! What do you think?

Bibliography:

Deutsche Wochenschau newsreel, August 1944, via United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration, (source)

Gurkha Battle in the Imphal Area, Indian Inter-Service Public Relations Directorate via IWM, (source)

Fighting On Film: 633 Squadron

Join us this week as we slip on our flight suits, climb into our cockpits and fire up our Mosquitos for 1964’s 633 Squadron. The squadron is tasked with a secret mission to destroy an enemy factory. The film is based on a book by Frederick E. Smith and stars Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, Harry Andrews and Angus Lennie.

The episode is also available on all other podcast platforms, you can find them here.

Here’s some stills from the films:

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @FightingOnFilm and check out our new website www.FightingOnFilm.com

Thanks for listening!

Unpacking 60 Years of Military History

Today we have a bit of an interesting unpacking/unwrapping video. I’ve saved up a few parcels with some new additions to the TAB reference collection and I thought I’d bring you along for the ride. The manuals we’ll be taking a look at span about 60 years of British Army doctrine and weapons. The materials range from a Hotchkiss machine gun manual from 1917 to an AFV identification handbook from the late 60s. There’s some quite interesting and rare stuff here including a 1951 provisional manual for the 3.5in rocket launcher.

These manuals and this sort of primary material is really important because we can learn how the weapons were actually intended to be used. It’s support from our Patreon supporters that enables us to pick up items like these to share in videos. So if you’d like to support our work, check out the TAB Patreon page here.