Canadian Revolver use WWII

[MattE93]

I am in the process of buying one of the Canadian issued pre victory S&W M&P revolvers and it got me thinking, who was actually issued revolvers I’m WWII? I am assuming handguns still weren’t extremely common in WWII especially early war.

Were revolvers issued to officers, Pilots, Tankers, rear echelon troops, all of the above? Looking for any info on Canadian issuing of side arms, especially revolvers

 

[7ECA]

http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapons/pistols.htm

Gives you a taste of the pistols of the Canadian Army/Forces.

 

[Ganderite]

My father was RCAF aircrew. he was issued a 38 S&W in a blue canvas holster & belt.

I know he carried it some times because there is a story of him shooting a duck with it while in a dingy going out to a anchored Canso.

He was a good shot with a rifle and shotgun, and this was generally known. A flock of ducks came by while they were in the little boat and he pulled his revolver and fired, as a bit of a joke. A duck was hit and fell.

He never told his buddies that he was not aiming at anything.

 

[cigar_man]

I have a Enfield No.2 MkI Revolver with C broad arrow.

These where carried by Canadian Military Police and others during WW2.



Ganderite, thanks for sharing the story.

So many untold personal stories of the war that are so precious to the makeup of Canadian Military History.

 

[MattE93]

Thanks for the info guys!!

Nice No.2! I was on the hunt for one with wood grips that had the option for single action

 

[Fitz]

If you like reference books try " Canadian Military Handguns 1855-1895" by Clive Law . There is a chapter on WW 11 handguns

 

[GrantR]

I am the source of most of the images and text on the canadiansoldiers.com link posted by 7ECA, above. As mentioned at the beginning of that article, handguns were not commonly "issued" to officers until WWII - prior to that, they were generally required to provide all of their own uniforms and kit (including personal weapons) at their own expense, so issue of Government-owned handguns was largely limited to such Other Ranks as were deemed to be in need of one ... which did include tankers and pilots, but also some NCOs, some artillerymen, dispatch riders and so on .... Many of the handguns purchased by the Canadian government for WWI were sold to officers, becoming their personal property and thus escaping application of Government ownership marks like the C-broadarow. However, during WWII, although an officer was still permitted to supply his own sidearm, it was no longer required. This difference between the practice in the two World Wars is evident in the numbers of handguns acquired for each conflict: in WWI, Canada acquired 5,000 Colt Government Model pistols (i.e. the Colt M1911, although strictly speaking that term was only applicable to pistols produced under contract for the US military) and 14,500 S&W Hand Ejector revolvers (quite a few of the latter ultimately being transferred to the British War Department.) By contrast, during WWII, Canada acquired 118,732 S&W M&P revolvers (beginning in 1939) and 54,235 Inglis-made Browning Hi-Power pistols (starting in 1944) ... those being our two "primary-issue" handguns during that conflict. (Data is from Appendix B of Clive Law's "Canadian Military handguns, 1855-1985".)

Might as well take this opportunity to post pictures of the primary example of each of these two types of handgun in my personal collection ...

 

[MattE93]

Great info! And nice pictures. Thanks for the knowledge share everyone

 

[Old Ranger]

Our son served 9 months at Kandahar Airfield in a support role. (CF Joint Signals Regiment) . Was issued a Browning HP. He was a baker at Tim Horton's here in Bancroft before joining. We have (what I think) is a cool picture of him at the Kandahar Tim's with "his" HP in a shoulder holster. He said it was in much better condition than the training pistols in Kingston.

 

[GrantR]

So far as i am aware, any HP pistol issued in the Canadian Forces, right up to the present day, will be one of the pistols manufactured by Inglis in 1944 or 1945. When the late Clive Law was collecting the information for "Canadian Military Handguns" (published in 1994) his understanding was that there were still thousands of these pistols in Stores, literally "brand new in the box", while those on issue to the Forces were in very much over-used and worn-out condition. Apparently it had something to do with the excessive bureaucratic rigamarole involved with taking a pistol out of service and substituting a new one, which led to the ones already issued being constantly patched up with replacement parts cannibalized from unissued pistols (even up to and including replacement slides and barrels with their serial numbers struck out, since it is the receiver which constitutes the "firearm" under Canadian law.) Once deployments started in earnest in Afghanistan, DND finally had to start issuing some of the pistols which had been sitting in their packing boxes since 1945 ...

"... Then and Now ..."

 

[silverfoxdj]

http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/weapons/pistols.htm

Gives you a taste of the pistols of the Canadian Army/Forces.

That is a nice site thanks for sharing

 

[cigar_man]

My Canadian War Babies

WW2 - Enfield No.2 MK1 (C broad arrow marked)


WW1 - 1918 Webley MK VI


WW1 - S&W Hand Ejector (Capt. Joe Lawson - from Toronto, Ontario) 204th Battalion CEF


Captain Joe Lawson, who penned the lyrics, is pictured on the cover.
Lawson was 50 years old when he enlisted in 1916. The song was published in 1916.

Home Sweet Home For You We're Fighting

Verse 1:

In the battle trench we stand
Far away from our dear land,
Singing songs of home and country o’er and o’er,
We are fighting day and night
For the victory of the right
For the day we’ll see our home sweet home once more!

Chorus:

Home, Sweet Home! for you we’re fighting!
Cheer up! Lads the day will come,
When we’ll drive the foeman back;
And we’ll save the Union Jack,
Then we’ll march back to Home Sweet Home.



WW1 - S&W Hand Ejector (Capt. G.H. Hollier - from Tillsonburg, Ontario) 168th Battalion CEF

 

[tacfoley]

Pd.

 

[MattE93]

Really nice collection. I would love to find a No.2 Mk.1 that still had the hammer spur

My Canadian War Babies

WW2
View attachment 292726

WW1
View attachment 292722

WW1
View attachment 292723

WW1
View attachment 292724

 

[MuthaFunk]

My Canadian War Babies

WW2 - Enfield No.2 MK1 (C broad arrow marked)
View attachment 292726

WW1 - 1918 Webley MK VI
View attachment 292722

WW1 - S&W Hand Ejector (Capt. Joe Lawson - from Toronto, Ontario) 204th Battalion CEF
View attachment 292723

WW1 - S&W Hand Ejector (Capt. G.H. Hollier - from Tillsonburg, Ontario) 168th Battalion CEF
View attachment 292724

Great post!! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[cigar_man]

Here is an interesting war time story, concerning the Enfield No.2 MK1 revolvers.

I was out with a local 96 year old Veteran “Stewart” from the town where I live last Sunday.

Stewart served with the Elgin Regiment (D-Day +7) and the Canadian Armoured Regiment (BCR).
It’s a little hard for him to get around, but his mind is sharp as a tack.

Long story short, one night in 1944, Stewart was with the BCR’s and they where winding down for the evening for small repairs.
They came into an area where two geese where running around and Stewart’s Sgt. said, if you can get one of those, I will take it back and have the cook prepare it for us.

Stewart pulls out his trusty Enfield No.2 Mk1.

The powerful and deadly .38 S&W.

Stewart figured, he’s all mine. He squeezed off a shot at the goose from 10 feet away. The bullet hit the goose in the wing, bounced off and hit the Sgt. right on the cheek and fell to the ground.

With pure amazement, Stewart said they all started laughing as the goose was squawking like hell. Another trooper finally came along and killed the goose with a club. Stewart said he was kind of sad as he figured the goose earned a second life from the shot.

The sadness faded that evening as they all sat down to a goose dinner.




WW2 - Enfield No.2 MK1
View attachment 292726

 

[Esvagt]

Some beautiful shots here, are any of these still being fired regularly?

 

[GrantR]

I have fired my various WWI/WWII-vintage handguns on occasion, though not really "regularly" ....

The 20th-century Canadian military handgun I have fired the most is this 1914 Colt Government Model ... one of the 5,000 such pistols acquired by Canada that year -

Although purchased from the Militia Department by the officer whose Attestation Paper is shown in the inset, it was one of the 5,000 acquired by the government from Colt, as confirmed by this detail from my Colt Factory Letter -

I actually tend to shoot my 19th-century vintage "Antique" handguns more frequently, such as this Webley "WG Army Model" -

 

[koldt]

British lanyard

 

[MattE93]

I plan on shooting the one I bought at my first chance. The cast lead bullets of the .38-200 plus then relatively low pressures aren’t very hard on the rifling of the victory model revolvers.

Some beautiful shots here, are any of these still being fired regularly?