UK Deactivated Forearms Registration

[Roger Payne]

Hi Roy. Thanks. I wasn't sure, but a good friend of mine is one of the army's more experienced EOD technicians (he's also a shooter of Enfields & a renowned battlefield archaeologist) & he had indicated along those lines. It seems ridiculous for it to apply to long obsolete & empty stuff, but as you say, it probably needs a test case to establish a precedent. Not that I would envisage a queue of volunteers forming up!

It's a long time ago, & things have changed drastically, but I used to spend a lot of time in the Channel Islands metal detecting. I inadvertently happened upon S mines relatively commonly, although they were all (fortunately) mines that had been lifted, the dets & bursting charge removed, & the pots then thrown back into the ground & buried. I gather when Force 135 (I think it was 135) reached the islands they enlisted some of the German troops to lift & make safe all of the mines that they'd laid, under RE supervision. Sounds like this was probably a standard scenario, given the above comments about the Germans also being used to undo their own handiwork in Denmark!

[Roy W]

The same happened in the UK Roger. All airfields in the UK had pipe mines buried at an angle under the runways and surrounding land. The idea being, in the event of an invasion, they were all detonated and instantly all airfields were unusable.
At the end of WW2 they were cleared by Canadians, the story goes they were told once the clearance was complete they would be sent home. It was done in record time (that's the story anyway)

In the early 80's a farmer ploughing his field (an old wartime airfield) detonated a mine and was either killed or injured.
This was the beginning of Operation Crabstick, the removal of all pipelines from existing and old British airfields by 33 (EOD) Regs, RE

I am not sure if they have finished yet, but I expect so. I was involved in a South Coast International Airport clearance in 1989 on Op Crabstick. All the pipelines were still in situ, albeit all/most of them were empty, some in several parts.

One was half under the main runway. It was decided it was too expensive to dig up, so we concreted in the exposed half and covered it up again. It is still there.

Chucking empty mines back in holes makes sense at the time, but 30-40 years later things get twitchy!

[peregrinvs]

The registration requirement only applies to EU spec deacts: “Firearms which were deactivated prior to 8 April 2016 are not covered by these provisions until such time as they are transferred”.

[bigduke6]

Thanks for that Mark, took me a while a to decipher and digest the whole legislation, even contacted another forum member to make sure I'm not loosing the plot.
I just cant understand the logic in registering something that is a very nice looking door stop........ what will they think of next ?

[Surpmil]

"Deactivated forearms" eh?

There's many a slip twixt the couch and lip.

The same happened in the UK Roger. All airfields in the UK had pipe mines buried at an angle under the runways and surrounding land. The idea being, in the event of an invasion, they were all detonated and instantly all airfields were unusable.
At the end of WW2 they were cleared by Canadians, the story goes they were told once the clearance was complete they would be sent home. It was done in record time (that's the story anyway)

Interesting story; what's the source?

[peregrinvs]

I suspect the ‘logic’ behind it is that anything that makes deacts less desirable to own, but doesn’t involve paying compensation to the owners is fine by the Home Office. However, I assume it is being widely ignored out in the real world.