PARAs – The Armourers Bench

While doing some archival digging I found some interested newsreel footage of early Cold War British missiles. The footage features the Malkara anti-tank missile and the Thunderbird surface-to-air missile.

The Malkara was developed in the early 1950s. It was a wire-guided anti-tank weapon with a 57lb HESH warhead. It had a range of up to 2.5 miles. In the footage we see it guided through a hole in a target net.

*FV1620 Humber Hornet launching a Malkara (ParaData)*

The Malkara was mounted on a number of platforms and vehicles and remained in service into the mid-1960s. It’s bulk and weight saw it eventually replaced by the smaller Vickers Vigilant and the Swingfire.

*Thunderbird, c.1960 (Adrian Pingstone)*

The second missile featured in the newsreel is the English Electric Thunderbird, a British Army SAM with a 75km range and a speed of Mach 2.7. The Thunderbird was replaced by the Rapier in the 70s, which is still in service today.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of these British cold war missiles in action, it’s amazing what you find in archives when you aren’t looking for it!

Bibliography:

Footage Source: Universal Newsreel Volume 30, 1957, via US National Archives, (source)
Anti-Tank Weapons, T. Gander, (2000)

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Fighting On Film is a brand new podcast about classic and obscure war movies. Hosted by Matt and Robbie McGuire (of RM Military History). In this first episode we discus an absolutely fascinating war film – Theirs Is The Glory, a 1946 telling of the story of the Battle of ArnFighting On Film: Theirs Is The Glory (1946)hem. What makes the film unique is that it was filmed entirely on location and with a cast made up of soldiers who had fought at the battle!

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Robbie and I discuss the unique production of the film, the weapons, kit and equipment seen on screen and some of our favourite scenes. We hope you enjoy our ramblings and we definitely encourage you to check Theirs Is The Glory out.