Very Pistol Questions

[David Dunlop]

Hi Robin.

It might be easier for us to help if you tell us the vehicle for which you were thinking of obtaining a Very Pistol.

If arm waving generalizations will help in the interim, the Canadian Forces have been using Very Pistols all the way back to World War One, and probably even a bit earlier. There are many variations and manufacturers, but as Rob Love commented, the 1" is probably the most common. It started out as a signalling tool for infantry and rapidly expanded in use to cover artillery, aircraft etc. It was typically a combat vehicle issue and did not form part of the 'normal' kit for soft skin equipment. Some armour was equipped with a built in flare pistol as per the Staghound, which has one mounted in the right side turret roof close to the loader/operator's hatch. It pointed forward at a 45 degreeish angle and I think was a 1.5 inch size.

As an interesting aside on the amount of use the Very Pistol had in the Canadian Forces, part of the course work for the BCATP Wireless School No. 3 here in Winnipeg during World War Two, was a requirement that part of the signals training wireless operator candidates need to learn, was the use of signal flares.

Regards,


David