During the Second World War, the Mountain and Snow Warfare Training Centre included two Vickers machine guns as part of their war establishment. It’s unclear whether they were being used for training new or existing machine gunners; although it’s more likely they were for existing machine gunners and to demonstrate the load carrying requirements for the guns.
This training centre had a mountain wing and a snow wing, alongside administrative staff. The intent was to train fifty officers and fifty warrant officers and NCOs at any one time. This would have included Army Commando and Royal Marine units as well as the 52nd (Lowland) Division who were the mountain-trained division for the British Army – their machine gun battalion was the 7th Bn, Manchester Regiment.
Sources
- The National Archives, WO 24/943, War Establishments 1942 January to June
- Phil in Cornwall (2014) Commandos Training in Cornwall in World War Two [Video] Available at: https://youtu.be/F11UABufuos (Accessed: 2 March 2020)
