WW II British Army Manuals

Firstly, let me apologize if this thread is running elsewhere & I missed it. I'm former Cdn. Army & currently volunteering at a local military museum. Our book collection contains a large number of WW II-era British Army manuals but we have no idea how complete/incomplete our collection is.
Can someone direct me to a site that (a) explains the pamphlet numbering system & (b) has a list of what was published between 1925 & 1950 (or any subset of that time frame)?
Thanks in advance for any & all assistance.

Bruce

Bruce, I have and have had quite a number of these War Office pamphlets concerning Army equipment. Looks like most printed by His Majesty's Stationary Office, but looks like others where printed by civilian publishers and given W.O. numbers. Some were, " Reprinted in Canada by Permission of the Controller, His Majesty's Stationary Office." I am not sure all W.O. Code numbers were used in sequence. I have for example March 1950, " Tactical Employment of Movement Light", W.O. Code No. 8471. Since your message, I have tried an internet search for Code No.s lists, without luck. I found some pubs on the site of the Imperial War Museum. You probably already have this information, but I found your quest of interest. I too am exCanadian Army. I am interested in comparing notes.

We had absolutelt piles and piles of zillions of these booklets usually associated with the weapon training aspects of Army life and believe me, cataloging them is a nightmare. We had a bloke from one of the collectors groups came to see us and help. He did the bizz and left us with a recent publication that they'd self published. I don't know who they were but I bet someone on the forum will let you know. Incidentally, some of the old original booklets/pamphlets we had were new/unknown, even to the experts! Including the first Bren training pamphlet using ZB guns, leathger bandoliers and 1st war webbing

Thanks for the information; IWM is slow to respond (re-opening today may have a lot to do with it!) but they are helpful. If you ever wish to donate your existing manuals please drop me a line. we're trying to create as comprehensive a pam library as possible.

---------- Post added at 11:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:06 AM ----------

Thanks Peter - I was fairly sure that someone had attempted this in the past but a quick look on the web didn't produce anything. I'll keep looking.

Hi Bruce,
The amendments used to come in, in droves, a real pain sticking them on top of the old info grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr:surrender:

A complete set.............. You must be barking mad!!!!!!!!! We barely scratched the surface with just the Infantry weapons and had shelves bulging with them...................

I won't argue regarding the insanity part; we seem to have inherited Artillery, Armour, Engineer , Civil Defense & Staff Officers materials as well as Infantry. All 1929 to 1950 (approx.) Any help is appreciated as we know what we have; what's missing is the interesting part.

'Small Arms Training, Volume 1' (there never was a Vol.2) began issuing in 1937. It was intended to replace the five hardback books of Small Arms Training, 1931, of which Vol.5, on range construction, targets and safety templates, continued in force throughout most of the war. The initial plan was for 17 pamphlets, actually issued in nineteen booklets because the one on the Vickers MMG was in three parts. Not all the pamphlets appeared at the same time, nor in numerical order. At first they could be purchased by anyone through the Government Bookshop but by 1939 they were only being issued through official channels. The Thompson one was one of a number issued for new weapons (or in some cases old weapons brought back) in 1940. The training and doctrine advocated changed somewhat with time, supplemented by amendments announced from time to time and a series of War Training Memoranda, most of which dealt with smallarms.
A new series began in 1942.
Eventually 28 pamphlets were issued, some rewrites of the earlier one, some completely new covering things like the 6-pndr a/t gun which could scarcely be deemed smallarms. The one on The Machine Carbine covered two weapons instead of separate ones on the Thompson and the Sten. Some of these were retained in the Small Arms Training, 1948 series but this seems to have been an interim publication before the new Infantry Training series was issued in the 1950s.

See Tom Davis & John Bodsworth, Small Arms Training, Pamphlet Manual (2 vols. 2003 & 2006). privately published by the authors.