Arming The British Home Guard 1940-1944:

More than 1,600,000 men & women served unpaid in Britain's World War II Home Guard.

The Home Guard officially disbanded 31 December 1945 but had "stood down" in late 1944  .. however back in 1940 there were only two things able to stop a German airborne invasion of Britain - Fighter Command and the  Local Defence Volunteers / HOME GUARD on the ground.

Messerschmitt  Me-321 Transport Carrier of WWII.

This link takes you to a site where you can down-load a 335 page thesis by D M Clark called ARMING THE BRITISH HOME GUARD 1940-1945.

https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/6164

1,206 members of The Home Guard died while on duty - often through deadly bombing raids.

Cosmoline Stored - Home Guard M 1917  30-06  '.300" Rifle'. From US.

 - Although Often Disliked - The 30-06 Ballistics Were Superior to The .303"

The .455" Caliber Webley Was The Most Common of Home Guard Handguns

- but .45"s, .38"s , .380"s and .32"s plus .32" "Automatics" were Plentiful Too.

Home Guard 30-06 Caliber M1918 BARs (They Had More Than 23,000)

Thompson sub-machine guns, STENS, Vickers, Browning BMGs & BARs, - plus improvised weapons all came into their hands - from shotguns and satchel-charges ... to the No.74 ST Sticky Bomb - ready for invasion.

Petrol Warfare weapons ranged from Molotov Cocktails (glass bottles filled with jellied Petrol mixtures) through to large flame-throwers - 'Nuttall Flamethrowers' - the Harvey flamethrower, - and anti-tank FOUGASSES,

The FOUGASSE Anti-Tank Mine was Built From Four 50 Gallon Drums of a 40-60 Petrol-Oil Mix - Ignited & Thrown Forward By Detonator Charges.

The Home Guard was in some instances - where located in the path of the expected invasion - better armed than some regular army groups - and the author rightly points-out that the excellent TV comedy series 'DAD'S ARMY' does discredit the essential nature of these part-time fighters ...in the same way that 'Allo-Allo' takes the 'Night'awk' out of the French Resistance movement.

- No "sticky" glue 'birdlime' applied yet to the woolen sock in this image.

"Tank Hunters" 
I've seen the No.74 ST Sticky Grenade named on an American website as the "stupidest weapon" - that guy should look in a mirror - as the sticky-bomb was an extremely CLEVER 'squash-head' (shaped-charge) anti-tank weapon - effective on up to 1 inch thick steel armor - and more than 2 1/2 million of them were made. Link to an interesting tale of "needs must":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_bomb

Chapter 9 concerns the Auxiliary Units and their issued 'specialist' weapons such as 'silenced' .22" Rifles (The DeLisles were developed rather later) for assassinating sentries and traitors .. three types of fighting knives*, garrottes, and rubber coshes .. plus a variety of handguns including, later, the Welrod pistol and silenced STEN Guns.

The WELROD Bolt-Action Silenced Pistol was Built (Mk.II) in .32" ACP With an 8 shot Magazine & in 9x19 mm - 6 Round Mag.(Mk.I)

Designed by Major Hugh Reeves of Station IX in Welwyn .. 

- who also Designed The similar single shot 'Sleeve Gun'.

* 14 variations of the Fairburn Sykes (FS), the 'Smatchet', and the early Wilkinson RBD "bowie" hunting knives

Marty K.