Toy Soldiers Historical Weapons - Britain

A short, historical description of the British arsenal as featured in the game Toy Soldiers.

Please note the author does not intend this guide to glorify war or offer political opinions on any nations in any way.

Please comment and like if you like to see more guides in this style!

British Anti-Infantry

Level 1 - Vickers Machine Gun

A deadly and iconic weapon of trench warfare based on the Maxim gun, the Vickers MG served the British army from 1912 until 1968. 4 liters of water are used for the water jacket cooling system, which could even be topped up with urine in a pinch. Legend has it that examples of the gun due for disposal were fired by bored armourers for more than 24 continuous hours without failure.

Range - 4km, indirectly
Ammunition - .303 British caliber, 450 rounds per minute

Level 2 - 37mm mle Infantry Gun

The Canon d'Infanterie de 37 modèle 1916 TRP is (surprisingly) a French weapon. It was intended for destroying dug in machine gun nests with direct fire. 37mm was the smallest caliber of weapon allowed for explosive ammunition under the Hague Convention.

Range - 1.5km
Ammunition - 37mm x 94mm, 25 rounds per minute

Level 3 - Mark II

The .59-inch Breech-Loading Vickers Q.F. Gun, Mk II surprisingly takes longer to reload than it does to say. The weapon was designed for a similar purpose as the French 37mm but wasn't able to compete against trench mortars in the role. Although it fired shells and had no capability to launch rockets, it was widely but misleadingly known as the "Vickers-Crayford rocket gun.

Range - Unknown
Ammunition - 40mm HE, Incendary, AP

British Mortars

Level 1 - Stokes

Rushed into service to counter the German Minenwerfer, the Stokes is arguably the grandfather of all modern infantry mortars. Propellant for the rounds came as four "rings" that could be added or subtracted to modify range.

Range - 700m
Ammunition - 4.8kg HE, Smoke

Level 2 - Newton

The Newton 6-inch mortar is the successor to the 2-inch "plum pudding" mortar. (You want to go and look that one up now don't you?) The three supporting guys are screwed to change traversal and elevation. (I swear this ain't a joke article.) Each round had a .303 cartridge on the bottom as the charge detonator.

Range - 1.3km
Ammunition - 24kg HE

Level 3 - Flying Pig

The British ML 9.45-inch (240 mm) mortar was a design based on the French 240 mm mortar. Unlike the French weapon the Flying Pig would be charged and loaded through the muzzle, a process taking around six minutes. A .303 rifle assembly in the base was used to fire the ignition round.

Range - 0.6 - 2km
Ammunition - 69kg HE

British Artillery

Level 1 - 18 Pounder

The distinctive cylinder above the barrel is a recoil dampening system that contains oil and springs. Poor mass production meant that over time the recoil system would often fail, requiring manual return of the gun to a forward position. Unusually for a 20th-century British gun, the 18-pounder retained two-man laying throughout its life, elevation (in yards) was set on a range scale on the right hand side of the cradle.

Range - 7km
Ammunition - 8.4kg HE, AP, Smoke, Gas, Star, Incendiary, Shrapnel

Level 2 - Mk VI

The Mark VI Howitzer was a serially produced weapon, unlike the previous Marks which were converted naval guns. A "Vickers platform" must be dug into the ground behind the carriage for firing stability.

Range - 10km
Ammunition - 91kg HE

Level 3 - Mother

"Mother" was the name of the prototype BL 9.2-inch howitzer. Transported in three carriages, the gun took more than a day to set up and required 10 tons of ballast earth to anchor the frame in order to stop the gun from "bucking" when firing.

Range - 12km
Ammunition - 130kg HE

British Anti-Air

Level 1 - Pom Pom

Named after its distinctive firing sound, the QF 1 pounder was not a terribly successful anti-air weapon. It did however claim the first anti-aircraft gun kill of the war in September 1914. Essentially a scaled-up Maxim gun, the earliest design of the weapon dates back to the late 1880s.

Range - 4km
Ammunition - 37 x 94R 1 pound (0.45kg) 300 rounds per minute

Level 2 - The Seventy Five

You'll never guess which nation the British got their Canon de 75 mm mle 1913s from. [The model in-game is actually a canon de 75 mm contre-aéroplanes sur plateforme mle 1915 but we'll give them a pass on that.] Who would have thought a field artillery piece would be versatile enough to adapt into an ack ack gun eh?

Range - 6.5km
Ammunition - 75 x 350mm, 6.25kg, 12 rounds per minute

Level 3 - Old Quick Flack

An improved weapon over older artillery-to-anti-air conversions, the 13 pounder 9 cwt anti-aircraft gun fires a 13 pounder shell using an 18 pounder charge. This results in the high velocity required for an anti-aircraft weapon. Seen in-game mounted on a Thornycroft Type J truck.

Range - 5.6km
Ammunition - 5.67kg sharpnel, HE, 8 rounds per minute

British Chemical

Level 1 - Red Star

Chlorine gas was first used by the Germans in April 1915, violating the Hague Convention. The British army replied in kind later that year with their own Red Star chlorine gas attack. Releasing gas from cylinders required favorable weather and terrain and could easily backfire. Whilst a terrible weapon to be exposed to, the advent of gas masks and better training made chlorine gas more of an annoyance than a deadly weapon on its own. Used alongside phosgene gas however...

Range - Delivery method, weather, temperature and terrain dependant

Level 2 - Schilt Flamethrower

The French Schilt flamethrower was first used in mid 1915, a response to the German flammenwerfer. Early weapons used bulky cannisters hauled by a squad of engineers, later models were backpack mounted. The largest flamethrowers were trench mounted with multiple canister. In the opening attack of the Battle of the Somme, British Livens flame projectors popped up in no-mans land from underground sapper shafts to fire on the German trenches from close range.

Range - 25 to 90 meters depending on size and system
Ammunition - Innert pressurising gas (such as nitrogen) and liquid fuel (such as thickened gasoline)

Level 3 - Livens Projector

William Livens of the Royal Engineers designed a number of nasty weapons for use on the Western Front. The Livens Projector was a sort of comically large mortar for throwing canisters of burning oil or gas towards enemy trenches. Being cheap and simple to use outweighed the fact the weapon could be unreliable and inaccurate. Hundereds or thousands might be fired off all at once in an opening salvo later in the war.

Range - 180 to 1500m depending on model
Ammunition - 193x508mm canister containing 14kg of gas, later war electrically fired model

[guahanboy.ac]

As a Warfare History Lover, I can give you no greater medal than a 'Take My Points'. Great Work.

[Barrel Boi]

you do good work, take my points

[commanderpanzer]

This is great! Do you have one for the Germans?

[RussianLetters]

I have no words. Bravo.