WWII Weapons Challenge: A British Assault Rifle

[Tony Williams]

Yes, I included a .303 bullpup semi-auto in The Foresight War. On reflection, I'm not sure that basing the mechanism on the Bren was the best idea, but the magazines should certainly be Bren-compatible.

The British actually developed a semi-auto rifle and an order was placed to make 100,000 of them - in August 1918! It was a gas-operated gun called the Farquhar-Hill, and used a drum magazine containing 19 rounds of .303. It was invented before the war (it was first tested in 1908) and kept being tested and rejected, until it was finally accepted in December 1917. The order came too late to start up production before the end of WW1, at which point it was of course cancelled. What might have been...

 

[Landshark]

You should show this to Landshark. He'll go all wobbly at the knees...

Ahem!

Ahem again!

More Ahem!

It seems to some extent that the adoption of a self loading or automatic rifle by Britain was tied up with the issue of ammunition.

The British Army had a long running interest in small calibre rounds, most notably in the .276 range. One of the earliest attempts at this was the Pattern 1913 Enfield, a potential successor to the SMLE. The P13 had several problems however, including that it wasn't as good as the SMLE, but mainly the problems were with the ammunition. A particularly 'hot' round it caused excessive barrel wear and uneven chamber pressures. Before these problems could be solved WW1 began and any thoughts of re-equipping with a new infantry rifle and new calibre ammunition were shelved due to more pressing concerns.

After WW1 Britain had large stockpiles of .303 ammunition and weapons to fire it and very little cash to spend on defence.

During the 1930's several countries were developing self loading rifles for introduction in the early 40's, plans which once again were cut short by events.

France: MAS49

Belgium: FN Model 49

The latter could have seen action in British hands during the war:

Dieudonne Saive, Fabrique Nationale's then-chief firearm designer, experimented with a number of recoil-operated rifle designs in the early 1930s. While little came of these experiments, they would become the basis for a gas-operated self-loading rifle, which he patterned in 1936 and prototyped in 1937. (Protographs of these prototypes still exist, and they show a number of characteristics that would later appear in the FN-49.)

FN's new rifle was ready to begin series production in late 1938 - early 1939, and a version with a 5-round magazine was about to be marketed. But when German armies invaded Poland, these plans were delayed to increase production of bolt action rifles and machine guns.

The German invasion of Belgium in May 1940 interrupted any plans for the production of the new model, as Liège, home of FN's factory, was occupied by the German military. Despite this setback, Saive was able to escape to England via Portugal in 1941, where he continued work on what would become the FN-49.

By 1943, Saive was back to working on his experimental rifle, now in 7.92x57 Mauser. Late that year, the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield ordered 50 prototypes (designated "EXP-1" and sometimes referred to as "SLEM" or "Self-Loading Experimental Model"). Based on tests with these prototypes, Enfield placed an order for 2,000 rifles for troop trials, but a last-minute problem with the moderation of the gas pressure (as well as the impending end of World War II) led to the cancellation of this order. Despite this, Saive (who had returned to Liège shortly after its liberation in September 1944) continued work on the rifle, and finalized the design for the FN-49 in 1947.

Another SLR that aroused British interest was the Pedersen Rifle, interest in this waned when the USArmy discontinued development of the .276 ammunition in favour of the 30-06.

Publicity of the fact that the U.S. Army was seriously considering the Pedersen rifle for adoption as standard issue generated serious interest in the rifle in Great Britain. Mr. Pedersen traveled to Britain in 1930 to oversee tooling up of a production facility by Vickers-Armstrong for manufacturing of rifles for test by the British Government and for possible marketing to other countries. Britain tested the rifle in 1932 along with other prototype semiautomatic rifles, but decided not to take any further action. Vickers apparently both manufactured the rifle in small quantities and also further developed the design. A caliber .276 Vickers-Pedersen rifle offered for sale in 2006 by the James D. Julia Auction firm was serial numbered 95, and the clip that accompanied the rifle was of a curved and symmetrical design (suitable for loading into the magazine either end up). The butt stock had a noticeably different shape than those of rifles made at Springfield Armory, but otherwise the rifle was identical to the U.S. production T1E3 and thus incorporated the design revisions covered by U.S. Patent 1866722 to make his rifle more modular in construction and thus easier to disassemble and maintain.

Now to put a Self Loading Rifle in the hands of British troops during WW2 you could either have the USArmy adopt the Garand in .276 thereby maintaining British interest and production of the round, you could have the FN Mle 49 procede further along the development path before it arrives in England, or you could combine the two, with the Mle 49 produced in .276 for issue to the troops in time for D-Day.

What you really need though is for Britain to decide to change the calibre of it's infantry weapons in the 1920's, otherwise by the time rearmament begins the impetus is going to change from introducing new and improved weapons to producing as many weapons as possible as soon as possible.

 

[Landshark]

There was also the New Zealand built Charlton Automatic Rifle.

 

[DMA]

There was also the New Zealand built Charlton Automatic Rifle.

That's an interesting article. Thanks for posting. I read there's a surviving example at the Singleton army museum. That's just up the road from me. I may take the Virago for a run in the afternoon...