Besa

[Anthony Kellett]

Lt Walter G. Pavey was a very experienced troop leader in "B" Sqn, 7th Recce (he landed in Normandy on 6 June in command of a contact detachment). By November, when the Humber IVs were withdrawn, the unit was in the middle of a 4-month spell of relative quiet, billeted on the Maas. Lots of time for the fitters to removed the Besas from the Humbers and prepare mounts for them on carriers. In 1948 Pavey wrote that the Besa was a "wicked little weapon...without a doubt, one of the most demoralizing pieces of equipment owned and operated by the regiment." He may well have been the instigator of equipping one or more carriers with a weapon he admired. I am still puzzled at the apparent lack of other examples of Besas on carriers.