Rifles on British Warships

[AlanD]

Can anyone tell me if there was a standard quantity of rifles that would be held in the armoury aboard larger British warships, during the war.

 

I realize this would vary with the class of the ship, but a general indication would be fine, if known.

 

Regards

 

AlanD

[The Treasurer]

It varied by ship class. Two examples, Dreadnought was allowed 258 rifles for sailors, 78 for marines; 50 cutlasses and 80 pistols. An L class destroyer was allowed 12 rifles, 20 cutlasses and 25 pistols.

Big ship allocation was reduced during the war to release weapons for the front. 1916 allocation on Dreadnought was 80 rifles for seamen, no change for marines and pistols cut to 40. Destroyers unchanged.

Edited 6 December , 2021 by The Treasurer
reduction in allowance during war

[KizmeRD]

I know that at the very start of the war, all Lee-Enfield rifles and shorter barrelled SMLE’s, as well as Webley pistols were taken off British warships in Home Waters and given over to the Royal Naval Division for use ashore. Ships were then provided with replacement small arms comprising of a mixture of weapon types. (Situation was remedied later on). Generally speaking it appears to be the case that the number of personal firearms carried aboard ship were sufficient for their needs.

MB

[James A Pratt III]

The rifles used by the RN to replace the SMLEs include Japanese Type 38s in 6.5mm and some Mausers 7mm?

I thought HMS Dreadnought was the first ship in the RN not to carry cutlasses.

[KizmeRD]

On 06/12/2021 at 08:02, AlanD said:

Can anyone tell me if there was a standard quantity of rifles that would be held in the armoury aboard larger British warships, during the war.

Alan - Just returning to your original post for a moment, I have since discovered a memo from November 1914 that specifies one rifle for each marine aboard ship and one rifle for every five sailors, but for ships on foreign service the allocation was one rifle for every three sailors.  And in addition to rifles (and pistols), cruisers would generally carry three .303 Maxim machine guns, and battleships five.

And in answer to your last post, RN ships were supplied with some 50,000 Japanese replacement rifles (Arisaka), plus a mis-match of other rifle types including old Lee-Metfords & Martini-Henrys, Winchesters, South American Mausers, and Ross Mk IIIB.

Sorry, but I’ve no idea about cutlasses! 
MB
 

 

 

 

 

[The Treasurer]

23 hours ago, James A Pratt III said:

The rifles used by the RN to replace the SMLEs include Japanese Type 38s in 6.5mm and some Mausers 7mm?

I thought HMS Dreadnought was the first ship in the RN not to carry cutlasses.

The figures I've quoted above are the official allocations from admiralty records. The cutlass was stood down to ceremonial use only in 1936. Cutlasses were actually used by the crew of Broke along with pistols and rifles with fixed bayonets to repel boarders after a collision landed some of the crew of G.42 on her forecastle in 1917.

[KizmeRD]

We still had cutlasses in the armoury during the 1980’s (in a RN shore base), but to the best of my knowledge, they were only ever issued for rating’s weddings (to provide a sword arch) i.e. they were held purely for ceremonial usage only.

Interesting that HMS Broke was still using them for their intended purpose during WW1.  (Internet folklore asserts that cutlasses were also used by the boarding party from HMS Cossack when freeing prisoners from the Altmark as late as 1940, although the veterans of that action always denied this).

MB

Edited 16 December , 2021 by KizmeRD