Dads Army:Weapons

Dad's Army







Dad's Army (1968-1977)


Dad's Army is a British sitcom that was broadcasted on the BBC between 1968 and 1977, about a platoon of the British Home Guards tasked with defending the fictional town of Walmington-on-Sea in the event of a German invasion. The platoon is led by pompous Captain George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and his diffident Second-in-Command, Sergeant Arthur Wilson (John Le Mesurier). It is often cited as one of the most popular British television shows. Several of the cast were veterans of World War One or Two.
The following firearms were seen in the British comedy series Dad's Army:



Contents
[hide]

• 1 Rifles
  1.1 M1917 Enfield

[*]2 Submachine Guns

• 2.1 M1928A1 Thompson

[*]3 Machine Guns

• 3.1 Lewis Gun

[*]4 Sidearms

• 4.1 Webley Mk VI

Rifles

M1917 Enfield
The Walmington-on-Sea platoon is issued with M1917 Enfield rifles in the episode Command Decision. These become their main service weapons, with the exception of Captain George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe). Private James Frazer (John Laurie) frequently switches between the M1917 and the Lewis Gun, depending on the scenario. The M1917 Enfield was indeed issued in large numbers to the Home Guard, in lieu of the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield, under the Lend Lease program.




M1917 Enfield - .30-06






The platoon demonstrates a firing drill from their new Armoured Car (Lance-Corporal Jones' Butcher Van) with M1917 Enfield's in The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones.






Private James Frazer (John Laurie) and Sergeant Arthur Wilson (John Le Mesurier) carry M1917 Enfield rifles when they are ambushed by British soldiers in Battle School.






Lance Corporal-Jack Jones (Clive Dunn) with an M1917 Enfield.






Captain George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) inspects Lance-Corporal Jones' M1917.






Private Joe Walker (James Beck) and Private James Frazer (John Laurie) fire blanks from their M1917's in a house-clearing drill, unaware the Vicar, Verger and ARP Warden are in the room.






Private Frank Pike (Ian Lavender) with his Enfield slung.



Submachine Guns

M1928A1 Thompson
The platoon is issued an M1928A1 Thompson with two magazines, a stick and drum, in All is Safely Gathered In. It is first issued to Private Frank Pike (Ian Lavender), whom refers to it as the "Chicago Piano" and constantly uses it to make machine gun noises, to Captain Mainwaring's annoyance. Like the M1917 Enfield, the Thompson was issued to the Home Guard under Lend-Lease.




M1928A1 Thompson with 30-round magazine and early 'simplified' rear sight that would be adopted for the M1 Thompson - .45 ACP






Captain George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and Sergeant Arthur Wilson (John Le Mesurier) inspect their new M1928A1 Thompson.






Wilson shows off the 50-round drum.






Private Frank Pike (Ian Lavender) with the Thompson.



Machine Guns

Lewis Gun
Private James Frazer (John Laurie) is issued the platoon Lewis Gun. It is most notably used in The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage, when Frazer fires on a detachment of the Home Guard he mistakes for Germans, and No Spring for Frazer, when he misplaces the gun's spring and is forced to search a used coffin for it. Captain George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) also keeps a Lewis Gun - presumably the same one - mounted on a sandbagged nest in defence of his bank.




Lewis Gun - .303 British






Private James Frazer (John Laurie) fires his Lewis Gun at an errant sea mine in Menace from the Deep.






Frazer with his Lewis Gun, sans a magazine, in No Spring for Frazer.



Sidearms

Webley Mk VI
Captain George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) carries a Webley Mk VI throughout the series. It may have been his old service revolver from his time in the army, as many Home Guard officers used theirs.




Webley Mk. VI - .455 Webley






Captain George Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) with his Webley Mk VI drawn.






Captain Mainwaring holds his Webley on snooping ARP Warden Hodges (Bill Pertwee) in Round And Round Went The Great Big Wheel.






http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Dad%27s_Army

 

How about The Smith Gun?

Firing onions!

Lawrence

 

In the finest nit-picking tradition of the site, wouldn't they be P14 Enfields? If they were M1917s it seems they would have a red band on them to indicate they were .30 US (30-06) and not .303

Looks like a great show. You all seem to rate it highly. Hope it comes on here someday

 

I served in the Home Guard during the blitz in Southampton, and later at Poole in Dorser we used WW1 rifles.

 

Have to agree with Dave55 on the rifle marking issue. It was something I first noticed a few years ago when they started repeating Dad's Army on BBC2.

 

In North Wales,where I lived, all the Home Guard had to drill with were wooden rifles. Not sure how long it was before they were issued with one's that actually fired bullets.

 

Just spotted Brian's (Sapper's) contribution and was reminded of my own connection with the Home Guard.

In 1942, while awating my call-up, I was a part time Air Raid Warden at a village near Luton called Houghton Regis.

At weekends we used to train with the local Home Guard on military exercises involving dummy roadblocks and the use of Lewis Guns.

We were also taught to fire small arms at the local cement factory's indoor rifle range.

Finally, Clive Dunn, who was in real life an ex POW and captured in Greece , was in the 4th QOH at the time, my old mob.

Just thought you ought to know

Ron

 

They already tried adapting it for US audiences - The Rear Guard (1976) - but it went down like a lead balloon because, so they retrospectively reasoned, the USA had never been at risk of invasion - i.e. doomed to failure by a demographically-alien sit-com premise. I suggest you instead sample it on YouTube and maybe buy the complete DVD collection if Region 2 PAL isn't a problem for you.

Steve

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q1ToUWu3Cc[/media]​

 

Hi Steve....yes, for some reason a lot of Americans don't realise that there WERE "home guards" in quite a number of states in the U.S.!

Have to admit I didn't know that myself until a couple of years ago when I went googling on "home guard manuals"....and kept turning up AMERICAN items from WWII on the net!!!

 

Even the clip of the American version looks pretty funny. Love the Rough Rider. Kind of the equivalent of having a Boer War vet in Dad's Army

 

If, by "Rough Rider", you mean the slouch-hatted guy fast asleep in a chair, I'd guess that was "Eddie Foy jr. as Bert Wagner (combination of Jones and Godfrey!)"* - L/Cpl Jack Jones indeed being the vet you suppose and Pte Charles Godfrey literally dozy. And I'd further guess it wasn't mere coincidence that awarded both Eddie Foy jr and Clive Dunn 3rd billing.

* Dave Homewood at The Rear Guard Reviews & Ratings - IMDb​

PS: Dave's full account here​

Please also note that Dad's Army wasn't an instant hit over here - even we had to grow to love it - somewhat easier without the hype that had naturally built up to colour US expectations of The Rear Guard after 73 UK episodes and a movie ...

And finally back on topic, FWIW, I've just found an undated "Chart of the P.17 .300 Lee Enfield rifle for Home Guard" tucked into the front of a 1942 SAT v1 rifle pamphlet #3 amongst my late dad's (mainly 'A' Coy, 10th Bn, Middx) HG bumph. Also, tucked into the back of that same SAT pamphlet, are 2 press cuttings:

• Jul 1939, p34 of "Defence--The Territorial Magazine"
  "Our New Weapons--No. 9
  "The "Stalker-Sniper" and the Sniper's Rifle"
  "This is the .303-inch Pattern 14. Mark 1. W. (T.) complete with sight telescope, and sight telescopic case.
  "The scale of issue of these weapons is 4 per Battalion for training purposes in Peace and 8 per Battalion in War.
  "The rifle itself is the Mauser action rifle manufactured in U.S.A. during the Great War." ...
• Nov 1940, p23 of "Defence--The Services' Magazine"
  "How to keep your Rifle 'Fighting Fit'" -
  specifically re "H.G. rifles" and annotated "P.'14 & P.'17." in my dad's hand

So, to recap according to that, the HG had both the:
* .300" P17 (general issue)
* .303" P14 (limited issue with telescopic sight for snipers).

 

I posted a link on this subject a while ago. The article is the best I have ever seen on HG weaponry, though it doesn't cover absolutely everything.
https://dspace.lib.c...andle/1826/6164

 

Excellent link TTH - it's long and I've only read a quarter of it, but will finish later.
During WW2 I was a young child and we moved in with my mother's parents (Dad was away in the Navy) and Grandpa was a member of the Home Guard, but I don't remember any weapons in our house. Mum was a secretary at the Home Guard office.
On the other hand my friend along the road showed me a large gun on a high shelf in their garage, could have been a rifle or a shotgun, which she said her Dad would use to kill the family if the Germans invaded. Childish imagination, or the truth?

 

Yes thanks TTH. You can probably tell I'm no weapons expert but taxonomy is clearly confusing - pp87-88 telling me a P17 (or M17 for that matter) is just an M1917 by another name and that Auntie's prop department therefore really ought to have painted theirs red & black in accordance with ACI 1571. Ex-HG Jimmy Perry evidently missed that goof ... or maybe did spot but let it go as artistic licence !

 

In many cases, the HG units originally armed with P14s in quantity had them taken off them again eventually...and the P14s were given to Commonwealth forces. There's one very short clip in The World At War "Desert" episode, and two clips in the "Battlefield" series episode on El Alamein of Commonwealth forces in the Western Desert visibly using P14s.

 

How could they leave out the 1906 Winchester .22 pump ?





EDIT:

Season 1 Episode 6 "Shooting Pains"

"She's a ballistics expert."