POV – You’re just back from an exciting day walking around the 1989 Arms Expo. You begin unpacking all of the brochures about the latest cutting edge firearms that you picked up! You start with some SIG brochures a nice man from Bern enthusiastically gave you….
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A quick look at a couple of recent additions to the TAB Reference Collection: a 1979 dated Colt M203 grenade launcher manual and a 1959 dated Irish Defence Force manual for the Carl Gustaf m/45 submachine gun!
The small Colt M203 manual covers everything you need to know about how to operate and maintain your 40mm grenade launcher. The booklet measures just 5 inches by 3.5 inches.
I’ve recently aimed to expand the TAB Reference Collection into Irish Defence Force material, this 1959 manual for the m/45 Carl Gustaf submachine gun joins an Irish manual for the FN FAL I acquired last year.
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In this short video we’ll take a look at a manual for the FN Light Automatic Rifle ‘Competition Model’. The FN LAR was a semi-automatic only commercial export variant of the FAL. This undated manual likely dates from the 1980s when FN began importing LAR’s into the US.
This week is FAL week over at History of Weapons & Warfare, with videos looking at the FAL from all of the creators being featured. Until Sunday, 8 October, you can get 25% off your first month when you use the discount code ‘L1A1‘! Head over and check out – www.weaponsandwar.tv
Front cover of the LAR manual (Matthew Moss)Centre-fold of the LAR manual showing the disassembly process (Matthew Moss)
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A look at some interesting items from the TAB Reference collection. Lots of great photos and some pretty rare manuals.
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In this video/article we’ll examine an original 1950s brochure for the CETME ‘Rifle 58’, which was manufactured under license by Nederlandse Wapen en Munitiefabrik (NWM) in the Netherlands. The rifle would later become more widely known as the G3 when a version of the weapon was adopted by the Bundeswher.
Printed in 1957, the brochure is in German and refers to the ‘Gewehr 58’, it is a quality publication and a considerable outlay appears to have been made with good photographs, excellent graphic design and a very clever ‘fold out’ central section which highlights the features of the rifle.
The brochure details the rifles operation, attributes and some of its accessories including optics, bipods, rifle grenades and what appears to be an intriguing suppressor. The brochure represents an interesting period in the G3’s history as it began to enter service in Spain and in West Germany. (though in slightly different chamberings).
Once adopted the rifle would later be produced in West Germany by Rheinmetall (see example below) and Heckler & Koch. Heckler & Koch would eventually acquire the sole rights to production and the G3 would become synonymous with the company.
Rhinemetall-produced G3 field stripped (Matthew Moss)
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I was recently contacted by Nigel a viewer who very generously offered some items from his late father’s collection. They’re now part of the ever-growing TAB Reference Collection, I’m honoured to look after them and share them with you in some future videos.
The items include infantry training manuals for the Bren, SLR and a section commander’s aide Memoire.
Nigel’s dad, Peter, was an avid collector of military items having served three years with The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) before joining the Royal Marines. After 12 years with the Royal Marines he later volunteered with the Royal Marine Cadets.
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.
Today we would consider the illustration an ‘infographic’, it was drawn up with the Ministry of Defence’s assistance by Illustrated London News‘ special artist George Horace Davis who had illustrated hundreds of similar articles including one for the PIAT.
The article, titled ‘Britain’s Latest and Most Powerful Anti-Tank Weapon’, explains not juse the operation of the new gun but also provides some data on weight and comparisons of the new 120mm HESH ammunition with that of previous conventional anti-tank weapons. Check out our video on the 2pdr anti-tank gun and the 6pdr anti-tank gun.
We have many more videos on important and interesting primary source materials in the works. If you enjoy our work please consider supporting us via Patreon for just a $1. Find out more here.
Check out videos on items from our reference collection here.
We’re back with another video looking at an item from the TAB reference collection – an illustrated spare parts list for the L21A1. L21A1 is the British designation for the American Browning M2 .50 cal (12.7×99mm) machine gun. A past owner has written ‘Ranging’ on the cover, perhaps suggesting this booklet specifically covered the guns used by the UK’s Royal Armoured Corps in its Centurion and Chieftain tanks.
We have many more videos on important and interesting primary source materials in the works. If you enjoy our work please consider supporting us via Patreon for just a $1. Find out more here.
Check out videos on items from our reference collection here.
During the Second World War the British Home Guard were extensively issued American .30 calibre Browning M1917 machine guns. These water-cool medium machine guns contributed significant firepower to the Home Guard fighting units. They began to enter service in late 1940 and by November 1942 there were some 6,330 in service.
With so many guns in service there needed to be a way of describing, categorising and identifying the weapon’s parts so an identification list booklet was drawn up giving the American and British nomenclature for the gun’s individual parts.
Front cover of the Parts Identification List for the Browning M1917 (Matthew Moss)
The booklet draws on the US Army Ordnance Corps’ Standard Nomenclature List A5 for the American parts names. The purpose of the booklet was basically to allow soldiers familiar only with British designations to know the necessary American nomenclature for the various parts. This would have been useful for when requisitioning replacement parts.
Page showing the gun itself from Parts Identification List for the Browning M1917 (Matthew Moss)
I plan on digitising much of what is in the TAB reference collection when I have the time and funds to do so, in the meantime a PDF of the pages from this booklet is now available here. Acquisition of this parts identification list booklet was made possible by our Patreon supporters – if you’d like to join us and help us share pieces of history like this one please check out the Patreon page here.
Check out videos on items from our reference collection here.
In this video we’re taking a look at something very rare, a pre-1911 catalogue produced by Colt. But it isn’t a catalogue to order guns from. Instead, it’s a catalogue to order gun advertisements from! Old firearms ad from this period are fascinating and give us an insight into who markets company’s were aiming their products at.
The catalogue includes illustrations of pistols and entire print ads which could be printed locally. It covers most of the commercial Colt line ranging from Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket pistols, to Colt Police Positive revolvers and Colt’s military automatic pistols.
New fangled Colt automatics (Matthew Moss)
The catalogue’s introduction explains Colt’s advertising strategy, saying:
“we advertise in the big national mediums to CREATE A DEMAND ON YOU for our arms; these advertisements are read by thousands of perspective customers IN YOUR LOCALITY, therefore YOU can obtain the benefit of SALE by local advertising.” It’s a sound enough strategy.
Only one ad includes a Colt product that isn’t a pistol. The ad above features an illustration which includes John Browning’s first machine gun, the Colt-produced Model 1895. It’s an evocative advert including revolvers, a semi-automatic pistol and the 1895.
Colt Model 1907 Military pistols, the predecessor of the 1911 (Matthew Moss)
One of my favourite parts of the catalogue covers Colt’s burgeoning automatic pistol line. This section actually helps us date the catalogue as there are no 1911s. It includes the Colt 1907 Military, the Colt 1902 Military, the Colt 1903 Pocket Hammer and the Colt 1903/1908 Pocket Hammerless automatic pistols.
Some of the illustrations of Colt’s revolvers available for printing (Matthew Moss)
The catalogue includes printable illustrations of the Colt ‘New Service’, the Colt ‘Army Special’, the Officers Model Target, the Police Positive Special, Police Positive and Police Positive Target. As well as some classics, with a full page of Colt Single Action Army revolvers.
Some cutaway diagrams of the Colt Pocket Hammerless (Matthew Moss)
The Colt advertisement catalogue is now part of our reference collection and we were able to bring this video/article thanks to the support of our Patrons. We have many more videos on important and interesting primary source materials in the works. If you enjoy our work please consider supporting us via Patreon for just a $1. Find out more here.
Check out videos on items from our reference collection here.
The Armourers Bench 