Historical Firearms

Men of the British Army Film & Photographic Unit

The above photo shows Sgt. DM Smith, Sgt. G Walker and Sgt. CM Lewis, three of the photographers who covered the 1st Airborne Division’s battle at Arnhem in September 1944.  The photograph shows them with their still and cine cameras back at the Army Film & Photographic Unit’s HQat Pinewood Studios on the day that they arrived back from Holland. Smith, on the left was wounded in the shoulder during the action and has his arm inside his jacket.  Note Smith and Lewis’ sidearms - probably Webley Mk IV or an Enfield No.2 revolvers.  The Army Film & Photographic Unit were soldiers trained to be cameramen and correspondents - when it was realised it was too dangerous for untrained photographers to go into action.

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Historical Trivia:  Royal Navy’s First Diesel Powered Sub Launched 105 Years Ago Today

On 16th May 1908 HMS D1, the first of the D Class Submarines of the Royal Navy was launched.  The photo above, taken by Stephen Cribb, shows the D1 moored in Portsmouth harbour sometime between May 1908 and 1913.  To the left in the background is HMS Mercury an old Iris Class Cruiser which became a submarine depot ship in 1906.  In the foreground we can see the A Class HMS A5 passing D1 with some of her 11 man crew manning the sides. 

The D Class of submarines was a major step forward in sub capability. Until that time the preceding classes were confined to coastal areas with little ability for longer range cruising.  The earlier classes A through C were powered by electric motors and petrol engines.  The new D class had an improved surface cruising range of up to 2500 nautical miles in comparison to the earlier A Class’, which was first launched in 1902, 350 nautical miles.  This shows the leap in capability over just 6 years.   The D Class also had improved armament and speed, fitted with 2 forward and 1 aft firing 18 inch torpedo tubes and was also the first class to be fitted with a 12-pdr deck gun for surface use.   They were also the first subs to be equipped with a radio set, they were truly cutting edge boats.

The D1 was built in absolute secrecy so advanced was her design, with her being built out of sight and even launched with little fanfare and she was immediately screened from view after her launch.  The D Class proved that subs could be viable long range assets when D1 sank a cruiser during exercises in 1910 and they proved their worth during World War One.   They were a part of the submarine force which patrolled the north sea and the Heligoland Bight attacking German shipping.  All of the sub classes built before 1914 played a part during the war with the A & B classes filling port and harbour defence and training roles and the more advanced C class attacking shipping in the Baltic.  After the end of the war however technology had once again advanced and the D Class were succeeded by the later L Class.  D1 was sunk as a target in 1918.

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Defence of the Falklands

A month before the British Task Force to retake the Falklands was launched the Royal Marines of Naval Party 8901 offered up the Falklands only resistance to the overwhelming Argentinian invasion. They were forced to surrender outside Government House after several hours of fighting. 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. The Royal Marines of Naval Party 8901 were not in the barracks and the next day after engaging advancing Argentine Amtraks on the road to Port Stanley they fell back to Government House defending it for several hours, killing one Argentine Officer and wounding several of the enemy, before surrendering in the morning.

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.

The First Carrier Battle Since WWII; That Almost Happened:

On the 1st May 1982, the Argentine carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (pictured top) detected the Royal Navy Task force on route to retake the Falkland Islands.   Veinticinco attempted to launch a wave of A-4Q Skyhawk jets to attack the British fleet.  However, high winds prevented the Skyhawks which were heavily loaded with fuel and ordnance from taking off. 

If the Argentine jets had managed to take off they would have engaged the Harrier’s of the Royal Navy’s Combat Air Patrol launched from two aircraft carriers (HMS Invincible - centre and HMS Hermes - bottom).

This would have been the first battle between aircraft carriers since the Second World War, when the US destroyed the last of Japan’s aircrews during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944.   Instead the ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was forced to return to harbour on the 3rd May after the cruiser ARA Belgrano was sunk by a British Submarine, HMS Conqueror.  

To this day modern fighter jets launched from opposing carrier groups have not fought a battle at sea.  

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 the Director of Naval Inteligence, Admiral Godfrey’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 mig 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 training 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 skills and experience he learned at Naval Intelligence in his world famous novels. Eventually 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.

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The Gun That Killed Hitler: Walther PPK

On the 30th April 1945, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Third Reich shot himself in the temple using a Walther PPK 7.65mm.  Terrified of falling into the hands of the Soviets, who were fighting their way through Berlin, he first swallowed a hydrogen cyanide capsule and then put a single round into his temple.  He was found alongside his new wife Eva Braun who had also swallowed a cyanide capsule slumped on the sofa seen in the first photograph.  
It is believed that Hitler owned several PP & PPKs but the pistol he used on the 30th April is long lost, possibly taken as a trophy by a Soviet soldier or kept and hidden by one of the last people to leave the Fuhrerbunker before the surrender of Berlin and the final collapse of the Third Reich on 7th May.    

The PPK is world famous as James Bond’s weapon of choice, however Bond’s first weapon was the Beretta 418.  It was only when a fan suggested the PPK as a more manly weapon did Ian Fleming rearm his famous character.  It was initially developed from the slightly larger Walther PP (Police Pistol) in 1931 by Carl Walther Waffenfabrik.  PPK is short for ‘Polizeipistole Kriminalmodell’ (Police Pistol Detective Model) and was extremely popular throughout mainland Europe with police and civilians.  During the war Walther provided the P-38 as the standard sidearm of the Nazi armed forces, however the PPK was issued to police, high-ranking officers, members of the Luftwaffe and intelligence services.  

Arguably it is one of world’s most successful double-action blow back pistols and is incidentally still in production after 80 years.  Famous and infamous in equal measure it is also one of the most copied pistols in the world with the Russian Makarov being of the most widely manufactured copy.   

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This post is part of the ‘The Gun That Killed…” series, you can find the other posts from the series here.