BRITAIN’S LAST DITCH WEAPONS
Following the disastrous Battle of France and the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk the British Army desperately needed to rearm. Britain’s response to the dire need for small arms was to develop a family of weapons that could be quickly and cheaply made.
While just over 338,000 allied troops were evacuated a massive amount of equipment had to be left behind. Hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, 11,000 machine guns, 2,500 artillery pieces, 650 tanks and 65,000 assorted vehicles. The men who waded out from the beaches left their rifles and much of their kit behind to avoid being drowned by excess weight, the men who managed to evacuate directly onto destroyers were more likely to have retained their rifles. This huge loss of equipment left Britain with only enough vehicles and heavy weapons to properly equip two full strength divisions - approximately 15,000 men.
Britain’s industrial capacity was stretched to the limit manufacturing war material and in order to quickly rearm the British Army new small arms which were simple, cheap and easy to manufacture were developed. At the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Harold Turpin and a team of designers began work on what would become the STEN submachine gun in December 1940. By February 1941 a prototype had been demonstrated and the Ministry of Supply ordered 100,000 STEN machine carbines. The British Imperial General Staff described it as: “one of the best bits of design on small arms carried out in England for a very long time.”
The simple STEN MkI had just 59 parts and could be produced with minimal machine tools, using stampings, by relatively unskilled labour. 300,000 MkI STENs were eventually ordered with a MkI* making small improvements. The MkII which followed was an even simpler weapon which began production in Autumn 1941. Read more about the STEN here.
British troops wading into the sea to await evacuation by small boats (source)
In June 1940 the British Ordnance Board requested designs for a light machine gun which could be produced in smaller workshops throughout Britain in the event that the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield was bombed. Henry Faulkner, the Birmingham Small Arms company (BSA)’s chief designer, developed the Besal light machine gun. Faulkner’s design was basically a simplification of the Bren gun. Chambered in .303 it fed from standard Bren gun curved box magazines but using a basic trigger mechanism, simple pressed gas cylinder (positioned under the barrel like the Bren) and its stamped body was held together by pinning and spot welding. The spare barrel issued with each Bren gun was to be recalled and used to make Besals in the event of an invasion. Unlike the STEN the Besal did not go into production, testing began in March 1942 by which time the immediate threat of invasion had significantly reduced. Read more about the Besal Light Machine Gun here.
Another light machine gun which was pressed into service, predominantly with the Home Guard, was the obsolescent Lewis Gun, many aerial MkIIIs and repaired and retrofitted MkIV guns (see image #4) were fitted with steel skeleton stocks and foregrips and pressed into service. Read more about the MkIV Lewis Gun here.
Rifle production also proved to be slow and the Enfield Design Department developed a number of prototype simplified rifles, based on the action of the Pattern 1914, which could be quickly manufactured. Like the STEN the Simplified Rifle, 1941 had simple stocks and a receiver which required less machining. The Simplified Rifle, 1941 was to be issued with an integrated spike bayonet and rudimentary sights. Like the Besal the Simplified Rifle never entered production. Read more about the Simplified Rifle, 1941 here.
Britain’s last ditch weapons were designed and developed during the darkest days of the war when Britain remained the last European nation facing Nazi Germany. However, as the war turned in the allies’ favour and increasingly desperate, Germany was forced to develop their own last ditch Volkssturm weapons.