Home Guard Middlesex 13th Battalion, 'B' Company short film

[bigduke6]

Found this on another forum, may be of interest to some, see link below once on the page the clip is on right....

London's Screen Archives: Home Guard Middlesex 13th Battalion, 'B' Company, Training Exercises / Home Guard 'B' Cup

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[Gil Boyd]

Blimey Geoff, At exactly 1:23 whilst wearing gas masks going through the step over wire the middle guy has a BAR. Now that must be unique for a Home Guard unit to have in 1943!!!

[mrclark303]

Very interesting colour film. The BAR is very interesting Gil, good spot!

First time I have ever saw one in British service. I know we received thousands of Garands that by all accounts went straight to store.

Logic would dictate they sent some BAR's along with the P17's early on. Probably WW1 examples from store.

---------- Post added at 01:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 PM ----------

I often wonder if the P17 remained Home Guard issue right through the War. I wonder if they standardised on .303 with the P14, especially later on when they were supplemented with Mk2 Stens and 1928A1's.

[bigduke6]

Well spotted Gil, Its surprising what they did have, also depended on the unit I guess....... BAR, Lewis Gun, M1903, M1917, P14, SMLE, Ross, think they also had a few of the old Arasaka rifles.......
Its films like this that give a better insight to the Home Guard.

The M1903,s are sought after see link below

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=15358

[Gil Boyd]

Was always told by a Home Guard Officer who recently died in my village, that they were givent he dross of British weaponry. It was only when Churchill thought we were going to be overrun that he issued out good stuff and that was after 1943............so very surprised to see a BAR in the film.
Its probably an AIRSOFT made in Japan

[browningautorifle]

Probably WW1 examples from store.

Yes, that one's in first war dress, probably an early Colt...

[GeeRam]

Was interested to see this but sadly, its not playing for me......just freezes during loading

I was hoping to see if I recognised anywhere in the film, as the 13th Middlesex HG were HQ'd in Ruislip, which is very near where I live, it might even have been the same unit that my maternal Grandfather was in, by location it would have been either the 13th or the 12th which was HQ'd at Wembley.

My paternal Grandfather was in the 6th Middlesex HG, HQ'd at Brentford, and was one of the 1500 or so HG service personnel that died on active service duty during WW2, although it wasn't as a direct result, but was from a secondary issue as a result of being hospitalised due to injuries sustained on active duty. My Grandmother had a 5 year fight with the War Office to gain a widows pension as a result, before finally being granted it, a death in service certificate, and CWG headstone for him in 1948.

[Mk VII]

Another BAR, with the Secretary of War Anthony Eden in the background.

[GeeRam]

I assume the BAR's were supplied instead of BREN's to only those HG units that were equipped with P17's, thus meaning only one type of ammo was used in the unit.

[Mk VII]

Generally they tried to keep one type of ammo within units. The documents in the Public Records Office show, (later on) a concerted effort to locate all .303s of whatever type in the Home Guard and exchange them for .30s. They also did this for some static army units that were not realistically likely to encounter combat.
25,000 BARs were on the initial buy list (valued at $1,519,000)