World War II Database

Country of Origin	United Kingdom
Type	Handgun
Caliber	9.700 mm
Capacity	6 rounds
Length	260.000 mm
Weight	0.780 kg
Range	180.000 m
Muzzle Velocity	170 m/s

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAfter WW1, the British government decided to put into service a new and smaller caliber revolver than the currently in-service Enfield revolver. A design by the firm Webley & Scott was taken to the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, and the eventual products were designated Enfield No. 2 revolvers; Webley & Scott sued the British government for £2,250 for the theft of the design, and was compensated £1,250, although officially RSAF Enfield maintained that it was actually RSAF Enfield which helped Webley & Scott arrive at the design, thus there was no wrong-doing.

Starting in 1942, the Mk I* design became the most common variant of Enfield No. 2 revolvers, with the reason being that this new variant design was cheaper and faster to manufacture due to the removal of the spur on the hammers. The resulting double-action operation, however, affected accuracy, thus they were not as popular as their spurred-predecessors. This decreased these revolvers' effective range to only about 15 or 20 meters. Thus, were many reports of soldiers purchasing revolvers from Smith & Wesson or Colt to replace their Enfield No. 2 revolvers, or even converting their Mk I* revolvers back to the original spurred configuration.

Between 1932 and 1957, about 270,000 Enfield No. 2 revolvers were built. The vast majority of them were built by RSAF Enfield, while Albion Motors and Coventry Gauge & Tool Company in United Kingdom and the Howard Auto Cultivator Company in Australia supplemented the production during WW2. After the war, they remained in service until 1969.

Source: Wikipedia. ww2dbase

Last Major Revision: Mar 2008

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