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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

The Meaning Of 'Wirer's Rifles'


woolly

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Good Morning Pals,

I am rereading (after a 25 year gap!) 'The Complete Memoirs Of George Sherston' by Siegfried Sassoon. In 'Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer' a fellow officer is relating to Sassoon the assault on Delville Wood by 1 RWF on 3 Sep 16.

"I saw one of our chaps crumpled up, with a lot of blood on the back of his neck, and I took his rifle and bandolier and went on with Johnson, my runner ... I could see four or five heads bobbing up and down a little way off so I fired at them and never hit one. The rifle I'd got was one of those 'wirer's rifles' which hadn't been properly looked after, and very soon nothing happened when I pressed the trigger which had come loose somehow and wouldn't fire the charge. I reloaded and tried again, then threw the thing away and got back into the trench."

Does anyone no what a 'wirer's rifle' is because it has got me stumped!

I've just had a thought, would it be one of those with the wire-cutting attachment on the muzzle?

Kind regards

Woolly

Edited once for a possible flash of inspiration!

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I have always taken this passage to refer to a rifle belonging to a Signaller who did not take the same care of it as a rifleman would have. As a wirer of rather later vintage, my rifles were purely for decoration on parades I could not dodge, I carried an smg at work.

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Judging by the memoirs of John Jackson MM in "Private 12768 Memoir of a Tommy" the poor state of a wirer's rifle is understandable.His survival of four years as a signaller probably owes much to the fact that he did'nt take a rifle on his many travels in no mans land repairing broken wiring. Stealth was a better defence than a rifle, especially when the enemy lines were manned with machine gunners.His MM award was for laying lines under enemy fire at Passchendale ridge Nov.1917. Ron Ward

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Good Morning All!

Many thanks for the replys. I must admit that it being a signaller's rifle was a possibility that I hadn't considered. However, this could be that I am a modern day 'wirer', and my rifle is immaculate - through lack of use!

Thanks again

Woolly

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Woolly,

I would have to disagree with Tom on this one and stay with your's and "Joseph's" thought's on it being a rifle fitted with a wire cutter, a device more likely to be "semi-permanetly fitted" to a rifle than not and therefore fitted to a "spare" rifle and issued as needed to the infantryman tasked with cutting the wire in the assault. If this was the case it would be a rifle that would not necessarily get the care that the one the soldier normally carried did before it was returned to the CQMS/Bn Armoury and they got their own rifle back.

In the context of your quote I would also suggest the dead "wirer" was one of the soldiers tasked with breaching the wire for the assault.

I would dare say the "wirers" rifle discussed may well have had some packing grease still in it somewhere. Now as a former infantry Regimental Signaller, I still looked after my rifle as I was still an infantryman when laying telephone line. I could not imagine a Reggie Sig getting out into No-Mans Land often even with Listening Posts, let alone someone from the Div or Bde Sigs Line'ees!

Cheers,

Hendo

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  • 9 years later...

I've just read the same extract in 'Memoirs of an infantry officer' and it too confused me. 

I've found that Sassoon also wrote a poem called 'Wirers' about the blokes who put up the wire on the front lines. From what I interpreted, the rifle mentioned in the book was broken because the wirers were in the the more dangerous and rugged environment in no man's land, compared to the relative safety of the trenches. So their rifles got banged around and broken more frequently. And in the case of the book, the tommy that was holding it hadn't had chance to get it fixed at the armourer because they were swiftly called into position after they had just gotten settled in a reserve trench.

I know this is an old thread but thought i'd take the chance and chuck my opinion out there.

Cheers

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