The majority of our downloads and online versions are provided free-of-charge for the benefit of anyone that wants to know more about the use of the Vickers Machine Gun and read what the Machine Gunners would have known. Many are rare items not readily available so, if you find them useful, please support the development of this resource. The archive now includes a wider range of associated documents so indirectly related to machine gunner. We hope you find it interesting.
By supporting the Association through Patreon, you are supporting the website fees that will enable us to have high-resolution versions online as well as receiving extended previews of our uploads and access to the original image scans. All donations are truly appreciated.
If you’d prefer to only give on a one-off basis, then go to PayPal or BuyMeACoffee and make a donation there.
All of the manuals are sorted in date order, with some exceptions where it is appropriate to group similar manuals, such as the Small Arms Training series.
1939-1975:
The series of Military Training Pamphlets was introduced just prior to the Second World War, with Army Council Instruction 271 of May 1939 announcing the first series of those issued so far. Those identified with an asterisk were used as study materials for the Staff College and promotion examinations.
- No. 1. Field Drill for Rifle Battalions.
- No. 2. Notes on Vehicles Maintenance and Inspection for Fighting Units.
- *No. 3. Notes on the Tactical Handling of the New (1938) Battalion.
- No. 4. Notes on Mechanized Cavalry Units (cancelled by A.C.I. 100 of 1939).
- *No. 5. Notes on the New Organization of Field and R.H.A. Regiments and their Tactical Handling.
- *No. 6. Mechanized Movement by Road.
- *No. 7. Intercommunications in the Field.
- *No. 8. Notes on the Tactical Handling of Army Tank Battalions.
- *No. 9. Supply in the Field.
- *No. 10. The Field Artillery Regiment.
- No. 10 (Supplement). Field Artillery (Territorial Army) Batteries.
- No. 11. Drill for Units Equipped with A.F.Vs.
- *No. 12. The Organization, Training and Employment of a Mechanized Divisional Cavalry Regiment.
- *No. 13. Notes on the Tactical Handling of the Carrier Platoon in the Attack.
- No. 14. 2-inch Mortar.
- No. 15. Notes on Defence (Provisional).
- *No. 16. Notes on the Organization and the Tactical Handling of Machine Guns.
- *No. 17. The Medium Artillery Regiment.
- No. 18. Drill for Foot Guards and Infantry of the Line.
Pamphlets No. 10, 16 (Medium Machine Guns) and No. 17, were cancelled on 6 March 1940 by Army Council Instruction 206 of 1940.
There was a re-numbered list from around 1943 so, for example, No. 2 became The Offence. Post-War pamphlets also re-used previous numbers.
No. 2
No. 2 The Offensive
This pamphlet describes the doctrine as the British Army began their fight into Europe, with Italy and Normandy ahead.
No. 3
No. 3 The Defence
1943, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 5
No. 5 The Use of Gas in the Field
1943, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 9 MAINTENANCE IN THE FIELD
No. 9 MAINTENANCE IN THE FIELD Part V – REME
1944, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 18
No. 18 Drill for Foot Guards and Infantry of the Line
April 1939, United Kingdom and Australia
Covering all of the wartime drill requirements for the British and Commonwealth armies, this is an Australian reprint of the British manual.
Low-resolution PDF download: 1,285 KB
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 18 Drill for Foot Guards and Infantry of the Line, Amendment No. 1 (Aust) 1940
October 1940, Australia
An Australian amendment for the drill manual issued in 1939 for the British and Commonwealth armies.
Low-resolution PDF download: 898 KB
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 20
No. 20 Camouflage – Disruptive Painting of Vehicles
1939, War Office
If you want to know how we camouflaged our vehicles at the start of the Second World War, then this is the pamphlet that shows you the paint schemes. Quite interesting to see how they then progressed during the war in the other pamphlets we have available.
No. 20 THE ASSAULT CROSSING OF WATER OBSTACLES – Part I. – The Opposed Crossing of a Water Obstacle
1947, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 21
No. 21 Dannert Concertina Wire Obstacles (Provisional)
1939, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 22 TACTICAL HANDLING OF ARMY TANK BATTALIONS
No. 22 TACTICAL HANDLING OF ARMY TANK BATTALIONS, Part III. – Employment
1939, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS
Prefatory Note
Military Training Pamphlet, No. 23 – Operations is the main title of a series of pamphlet which will contain the latest ideas on subjects dealt with in Field Service Regulations, Volume II, 1935.
War Office, No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part 1 – General Principles, Fighting Troops and Their Characteristics (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1939)
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part 1 – General Principles, Fighting Troops and Their Characteristics
March 1942, United Kingdom
A simple pamphlet but a primer on all aspects of the British Army‘s operations in this mid-war period. It includes a table of capabilities across the different divisions, including infantry division and armoured divisions.
Low-resolution PDF download: 1,448KB
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part 1 – General Principles, Fighting Troops and Their Characteristics. Supplement – 1939 – Particulars of Artillery and Small Arms Weapons – Bridges and Fords
1939, Australia
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part II. – Defence
1939, Australia
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part II – The Infantry Division in the Defence
March 1942, United Kingdom
One of the series of pamphlets determining the doctrine for the infantry division on operations, this time their role in the defence. It includes the machine gun battalion as part of that doctrine.
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part II. – Addendum No. 1 – Defence Against Air-borne Troops
1941, Australia
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part III – Appreciations, Orders, Intercommunications and Movements
October, 1939
An ‘appreciation’ in British Army terminology is an assessment of a situation. This covers how to make those assessments, and how to draft messages and orders that often follow them. There is also an explanation of how signals work and the security of those signals.
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part III – Appreciations, Orders, Intercommunications and Movements
September 1941 (1939 (Reprinted with Amendments and A.T.Ms.)
An ‘appreciation’ in British Army terminology is an assessment of a situation. This covers how to make those assessments, and how to draft messages and orders that often follow them. There is also an explanation of how signals work and the security of those signals.
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon.
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part III. – Appreciations, Orders, Intercommunication and Movements
1939, (with Amendments inserted up to 1943), Australia
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part IV – Protection
September, 1939, War Office
An early part of the Operations training series that explains the tactical approach to the British Army‘s operations in the Second World War. This part includes protection against air attack, passive protection, protection of road and rail from air attack and protection against gas.
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon.
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part IV. – Protection
1939, Australia
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part VI – Withdrawal
May 1940, United Kingdom
An apt publication for the month is which the British Army made its arguably most famous withdrawal (that from France as part of Operation Dynamo). This pamphlet covers the tactics and conduct of a withdrawal, as well as the roles of the different arms of service, including the infantry and the machine gun battalions.
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon.
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part VI. – Withdrawal
1940, War Office (Australia reprint)
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part VII. – The Employment of Air Forces in Direct Support of the Army
1940, Australia
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part VIII. – River Crossings
1940, War Office (Australia reprint)
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part VIII – Infantry and Armoured Divisions in the Opposed Crossing of a Water Obstacle
August 1942, United Kingdom
A detailed manual covering operations for crossing rivers, canals or any other water obstacle when it was being defended by the enemy (ie opposed). It includes the equipment used and how to establish a bridgehead on the other bank, including what to do with the assault troops.
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part IX. – The Infantry Division in the Attack
1941, War Office (Australia reprint)
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS, Part X – The Infantry Division in the Advance
September 1941, United Kingdom
An insight into the British Army’s doctrine ahead of the major operations in North Africa in 1942. It covers the overall doctrine, planning an advance, conduct during it, the different roles of different arms of service and the administration.
Currently only available on Patreon.
Alternative version also available here for Patrons.
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Part X. – The Infantry Division in the Advance
1941, Australia
Coming soon!
No. 23 OPERATIONS – Australian Addendum No. 1 – Notes on Extensive Warfare
1941, Australia
Coming soon!
No. 24
No. 24 Training of Motor Cyclists
1939, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 30 FIELD ENGINEERING (ALL ARMS)
No. 30 FIELD ENGINEERING (ALL ARMS) Part III: Obstacles (Provisional)
1940, War Office
It’s so much more than throwing a few tree trunks across a road and stringing some barbed wire together! This pamphlet goes into a lot of detail about the different techniques and materials used.
Given the October 1940 date, this would have been designed around stopping an invasion of the United Kingdom.
No. 30 FIELD ENGINEERING (ALL ARMS) Part V: Protective Works (Provisional)
1941, Canada
A Canadian print of the Protective Works pamphlet that details the trenches, emplacements and other defensive positions.
No. 31
No. 31 – Notes on the Organization and the Tactical Handling of Medium Machine Guns
February 1940, United Kingdom
This pamphlet sets out the doctrine on how to use the Vickers in action. Different scenarios are included, such as the offensive, the withdrawl and the defence. It replaces a short-lived pamphlet (No. 16) which we have available on our Patreon site.
Low-resolution PDF download: 264 KB
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 33
No. 33, Training in Fieldcraft and Elementary Tactics
March 1940, United Kingdom
The basics of soldiering are largely covered in this pamphlet with fieldcraft and section training for the infantry. This covers many different environments and represents what the British Expeditionary Force of 1940 serving in France ahead of the evacuation would have known, as well as the Egypt and the other locations around the world.
Available here for Patrons.
No. 35 ROYAL ARMOURED CORPS Weapons
No. 35 ROYAL ARMOURED CORPS Weapons – Part 3: 75-mm. Gun (M.2 and M.3)
1942, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 35 ROYAL ARMOURED CORPS Weapons – Part 4: Vickers GO Machine-Gun Mark I
July 1943, United Kingdom
This is the only known pamphlet issued by the War Office for the Vickers gas-operated machine gun during the Second World War. It’s a short pamphlet and designed for how the gun would be used in armoured cars by the Royal Armoured Corps, which included the Reconnaissance Corps. It includes an exploded diagram of the parts of the gun.
Low-resolution PDF download: 413 KB
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 37
No. 37 – The Training of an Infantry Battalion
June 1940, United Kingdom
This pamphlet describes the detail of how an infantry battalion was to be trained and prepared for war. Each of the different components are described and their part in the battalion explained. It sets out training schemes for collective training and provides some example problems to be solved.
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 39 THE INFANTRY (RIFLE) BATTALION
No. 39 THE INFANTRY (RIFLE) BATTALION, Part II. – The Carrier Platoon
1941, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 40 MINES AND BOOBY TRAPS
No. 40 MINES AND BOOBY TRAPS, Part 1 (All Arms) – How to deal with individual mechanisms
1943, War Office
Contents include anti-tank, anti-personnel, igniters and booby traps from the British, American, German and Italians, as well as mines from France and Hungary put into enemy service.
The No 75 ‘grenade’ is included in this too.
No. 40 MINES AND BOOBY TRAPS, Part 1 Supplement (All Arms). Enemy methods of minelaying (illustrated)
1945, War Office
The supplement includes the enemy methods of minelaying with lots of photos included.
No. 44
No. 44, Notes on the Training of Snipers
October 1940, United Kingdom
Sniping is often thought of as something the enemy did or a late-war development but snipers were part of the British infantry battalion throughout the Second World War. This is the training manual for them issued in 1940. It also shows some of the bespoke items of equipment they used as well.
Available here for Patrons.
Watch a preview here.
No. 46 CAMOUFLAGE
No. 46 CAMOUFLAGE – Part 1: General Principles: Equipment and Materials (all Arms)
June 1941, United Kingdom
A pamphlet that describes all of the equipment used for camouflaging equipment and vehicles, including a table on which camouflage net sizes should be used for the different vehicles and weapons.
Low-resolution PDF download: 1,527 KB
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 46 CAMOUFLAGE – Part 2: Field Defences
June 1941, United Kingdom
Detail on how field defences, including fortifications, should be camouflaged.
Low-resolution PDF download: 1,690KB
High-resolution available on archive.org thanks to support through Patreon
No. 46, CAMOUFLAGE, Part 4: Vehicles, wheeled and tracked
November 1941, United Kingdom
An interesting pamphlet on the principles and practices of camouflaging vehicles not only through their paint schemes (which is covered in detail elsewhere) but through parking and laagering in different locations, using shade, shape and shine to disguise the vehicle in more ways that just paining green and brown!
Available here for Patrons.
No. 51
No. 51 Troop Training for Cruiser Tank Troops
1941, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 52
No. 52 Warfare in the Far East
1944, War Office
Capturing the lessons of earlier operations, this MTP includes all aspects of jungle warfare, yet surprisingly absent are the MMGs!
No. 54
No. 54, Guerilla Warfare
August 1942, United Kingdom
Not a subject often considered worthy of a manual but this is how the British Army were teasching and training for Guerilla [Guerrilla] warfare in 1942. The sections include the requirements of guerillas, the factors in guerilla warfare, possible guerilla operations, notes on guerilla methods and fieldcraft.
Available on Patreon – subscribe to support the VMGCRA and access this file.
No. 55
No. 55, Fighting in Built-Up Areas
1943, War Office
An insight into the mid-War and pre-North West Europe training for fighting in towns and cities. It is also before the Italy fighting as well so largely theoretical work for the army that was in place at the time.
No. 56
No. 56 Mountain Warfare
A detailed pamphlet on the training for mountain warfare, which was the planned role of the 52nd (Lowland) Division (yet they never fought in that role).
Lots of information of all of the tactics to be employed as well as details of the equipment used, such as the Everest Carrier for the Vickers MG.
JPG and PDF files available on Patreon.
High-resolution PDF available for everyone on archive.org (thanks to Patron support!)
No. 60
No. 60, The tactical employment of Armoured Car and Reconnaissance Regiments, Part 1: General principles regarding the tactical employment of reconnaissance units
May 1943, United Kingdom
The title generally says it all!
A great military training pamphlet that sets out the principles of how armoured cars and reconnaissance regiments were used in the latter years of the Second World War. This is the pamphlet that would have set the doctrine for the first use of those units in Italy and then North West Europe. Some of these cars were armed with the Vickers K, hence our interest in them during this period.
Available here for Patrons.
No. 61
No. 61 Umpiring
1944, War Office
Coming soon!
No. 63
No. 63 The Co-operation of Tanks with Infantry Divisions
1944, War Office
Coming soon!
The majority of our downloads and online versions are provided free-of-charge for the benefit of anyone that wants to know more about the use of the Vickers Machine Gun and read what the Machine Gunners would have known. Many are rare items not readily available so, if you find them useful, please support the development of this resource. The archive now includes a wider range of associated documents so indirectly related to machine gunner. We hope you find it interesting.
By supporting the Association through Patreon, you are supporting the website fees that will enable us to have high-resolution versions online as well as receiving extended previews of our uploads and access to the original image scans. All donations are truly appreciated.
If you’d prefer to only give on a one-off basis, then go to PayPal or BuyMeACoffee and make a donation there.
All of the manuals are sorted in date order, with some exceptions where it is appropriate to group similar manuals, such as the Small Arms Training series.
Sources
- The National Archives, WO 293/24, Army Council Instructions 1939.
- The National Archives, WO 293/25, Army Council Instructions 1940.
