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They don't like it up 'em, Mr Mainwaring ...

Unknown HG author (?)

With weapons in critically short supply, even for the regular Army let alone the LDV/Home Guard, Winston Churchill declared that every Home Guardsman should have some weapon, be it only a bayonet or a knife. Whether he was entirely serious about this is somewhat doubtful, but the War Office took it seriously, and responded by ordering 250,000 pikes for Home Guard use. I am not sure that there was a regular standard for these pikes, but they generally consisted of a spike or redundant bayonet joined to a short length of steel or aluminum piping. The steel pipe seems to have been supplied by using "off cuts" from industries producing metal piping for more important products. The resulting weapon was, frankly, patently useless, as it would have left the user at a disadvantage even against a rifleman with a bayonet but without ammunition. The reaction of the Home Guard to the pikes was very negative. Some, clearly, were issued to the men. However, many languished in Home Guard arsenals (and, probably, church halls), as Home Guardsmen were unwilling to use them, and Home Guard commanders often refrained from issuing the pikes for fear of adverse effects on morale. JR.