Linda has done her homework well, but allow me to play “devil’s advocate.” The specific disaster at Dunkirk might not have been needed to precipitate Great Britain into “appropriating” the South African guns. What they may have only suspected before was confirmed when Germany moved into Czechoslovakia in March, 1939. I think “Mother England” knew what was coming and was gearing up as quickly as possible; they knew they were going to be in a “fightin’ war.” From its introduction through March of 1939, the Brits had ordered manufacture of only ~20,000 Enfield No. 2 revolvers, but in June/July of ’39, they ordered 87,574 more! (Note that this was before the invasion of Poland and the resulting declaration of war and almost a year before Dunkirk and the Battle of France.) In February, 1940, a study was released analyzing “deficiency between requirement and stock.” This study determined that the Brits should anticipate needing over 233,000 additional handguns! As they kept ordering more and more Enfields (and were later to also contract Webley, et al., to assist), there were other arms that were needed, too. That’s what prompted the contracting of S&W to design & manufacture a 9mm. “Light Rifle,” the failure of which was to ultimately result in the negotiation to provide Britain with Smith .38 H.E. revolvers. As best as I can determine, the first .38 H.E. contract of record between S&W and the B.P.C. wasn’t finalized until May 28, 1940. [Ironically, if I’m correct, the guns used to satisfy the one million dollar contract were .38 Special models and not the .38 S&W (.38-200) round that we normally associate with the S&W “British Service Revolver!”] By this time, the “Phoney War” was over as the Nazi blitzkrieg began rolling into France and the Low Countries. England needed arms! It is entirely possible that some “gentlemen’s network” (read: “good ole boys!”) added a negotiation contingency of this large contract… one that would virtually bail out S&W from near bankruptcy, if that’s not over-stating it! Perhaps the crates were still waiting on the docks of Boston/New York for commercial shipping--- this was, after all, still pre-Lend Lease, pre-Liberty ships and pre-FedEx!--- and were waylaid and re-marked for shipping to England; or, perhaps the ship carrying those crates had England as its first destination and it was unloaded there before heading south down the Atlantic; or, .... The possibilities are endless. Whether it was with “permission” of Smuts’ government is probably lost, but he was pro-British and had been a trusted colleague of Churchill for many years by the time the latter moved from his position as First Lord of the Admiralty to succeeded Chamberlain as Prime Minister in that all-important month of May, 1940.

I guess the point is that we may never know for sure whether the guns from these first shipments all ended up in England and none(?) arrived in Cape Town unless (insert plug here!) we one day get a submission to the database with confirmed provenance. It’s sure interesting to think about, anyways!

Steve

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CHL/NRA Instructor/RSO/Referee