Issue of Lanchester Magazines

[peregrinvs]

Hi,

As the owner of a MkI* Lanchester and a pair of Lanchester magazine pouches, I was wondering the following:

When the gun was issued with a pouch set (plus belt, etc) would it have been issued with 6 or 7 magazines? i.e. 1 on the gun and 5 in the pouches, or 1 on the gun and 6 in the pouches?

I'd assume the same principle would apply to the Sten and the three-cell Sten magazine pouches. (cut-down Lanchester pouches)

Just wondering how many Lanchester magazines I need for a 'full set'?

Thanks,

Mark

[horsa (David Gordon)]

With the Sten bandolier when issued for airborne use, they had seven magazines in the bandolier and were to place an eighth magazine under the parachute harness or inside the bellows pocket on their airborne trousers. Neither would have been comfortable when doing a PLF. This loose magazine would be inserted into the weapon once on the ground so the soldier would be ready for immediate action. But since the Lanchester was for naval use, they might not have been issued an additional loose magazine as there could have been considerable downtime between getting the weapon from an arms locker to when a party would go ashore. Guess this doesn’t help much but at least it’s something else to think about.

On a related note, I’ve used Lanchester magazines with my live Sten and never had any feeding issues when using modern ball ammunition. Don’t think I would want to carry them in combat though due to their extended and awkward length.

[peregrinvs]

Thanks. I think I'll assume for the time being that they were issued with six magazines. I currently have two - getting another four will probably be a long wait as I only buy them when they are very cheap.

Cheers,
Mark