Another Webley Question

[Khaki]

Would it be reasonable to conclude that when a revolver was issued from stores during the great war, that it may have been any of the Webley's, S&W, Colt or substitute standard models. Would an Officer get a choice? would there be an attempt to match his holster to barrel length etc? I presume other ranks had no choice.

khaki

[Radlad]

Would it be reasonable to conclude that when a revolver was issued from stores during the great war, that it may have been any of the Webley's, S&W, Colt or substitute standard models. Would an Officer get a choice? would there be an attempt to match his holster to barrel length etc? I presume other ranks had no choice.

khaki

An officer wouldn't be issued a pistol, they had to buy their own. As long as it was of 'Service calibre' make, model etc. didn't matter. The officer could buy what they wanted (or what was available later in the war due to shortages) . No doubt that some enterprising NCO's due for commissioning, would be able to procure some of their equipment from the front, before leaving for officer training in the UK.

[TonyE]

In the latter part of the war, due to the shortages as mentioned by Radlad, newly commissioned officers could buy their pistol from government stores as there were so few on the civilian market.

Webley could never produce enough pistols which was why in addition to the Colt and S & W revolvers we purchased the Spanish Old Pattern revolvers, .38 S& Ws (Royal Navy), .38 Harrington & Richardson etc.

Even post war, because officers took their pistols home when they were demobbed, the shortage was such that the War Office had an advertising campaign to purchase back pistols for service use. This is one of the reasons why the anomaly of a private purchase pistol with perhaps engraved initials can be found with military proofs and/or subsequent sold out of service marks.

Regards

TonyE

[Khaki]

So if an officer in France or Flanders was unfortunate enough to loose his revolver for whatever reason, did that mean he had to wait to have a new purchase shipped to him from England (battlefield aquisitions not withstanding) or were there stores held in France as well?

khaki

[TonyE]

There would certainly have been pistols in the lines of communication in France because of the widespread issue of pistols to cavalry and machine gunners.

Presumably officers who had lost their sidearm could have drawn on these, but I cannot offer any firm evidence.

regards

TonyE

[Khaki]

Thanks Tony,

It would have seemed likely, but as with a lot of small details it's hard to find supporting data.

khaki