This is a list of World War II weapons of Ireland. Throughout World War II, Ireland held a policy of neutrality. Ireland prepared for invasions from both Britain and Nazi Germany. Some cooperation with the Allies did occur such as

Plan W Plan W, during World War II, was a plan of joint military operations between the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom devised between 1940 and 1942, to be executed in the event of an invasion of Ireland by Nazi Germany. Although Ire ...

as well as allowing allied aircraft over Irish airspace through the

Donegal Corridor The Donegal Corridor () was a narrow strip of Irish airspace linking Lough Erne to the international waters of the Atlantic Ocean through which the Irish Government permitted flights by British military aircraft during World War II. This was ...

and providing access to weather reports from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

which were used to help decide when

D-day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

would occur. The

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

allied itself with Nazi Germany in pursuit of

Irish republicanism Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

as seen from

Operation Dove In World War II, Mission Dove ( Allies, 1944) was the glider-borne assault conducted as part of the invasion of southern France ( Operation Dragoon) on 15 August 1944. The original parachute landing, Mission Albatross comprising 396 aircraft carr ...

. However they were not part of the

Irish army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The Ar ...

and were not supported by the Irish government and so will be left out of this list. Of note is that Ireland got a lot of British WWI weapons due to conflicts with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

just after WWI such as the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

and

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...

when a lot of these weapons would have been captured by Irish forces in the fighting.

Small arms

Rifles

* Short Magazine Lee–Enfield No. 1 MKIII - Standard issue *

Springfield M1903 The M1903 Springfield, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber .30-06, Model 1903, is an American five-round Magazine (firearms), magazine-fed, bolt-action service rifle, service repeating rifle, used primarily during the first half of the 2 ...

- Local Defence Force and Local Security Force *

M1917 Enfield The M1917 Enfield, the "American Enfield", formally named "United States Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917" is an American modification and production of the .303-inch (7.7 mm) Pattern 1914 Enfield (P14) rifle (listed in British Service as Rifle No. ...

- Local Defence Force

Sidearms

Enfield No. 2 The Enfield No. 2 was a British top-break revolver using the .38 S&W round manufactured from 1930 to 1957. It was the standard British/Commonwealth sidearm in the Second World War, alongside the Webley Mk IV and Smith & Wesson Victory Model re ...

* Webley MK IV Revolver - Standard issue *

Mauser C96 The Mauser C96 (''Construktion 96'') is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937. Unlicensed copies of the gun were also manufactured in Spain and China in the first half of the 2 ...

- 295 in Army stockpiles *

Machine guns

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

* Lewis gun *

Bren gun The Bren gun was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in World War II, it was also use ...

* *

Madsen Machine Gun The Madsen is a light machine gun that Julius A. Rasmussen and Theodor Schouboe designed and proposed for adoption by Colonel Vilhelm Herman Oluf Madsen, the Danish Minister of War, and that the Royal Danish Army adopted in 1902. It was the wor ...

- vehicle use *

Hotchkiss M1909 Hotchkiss may refer to: Places Canada * Hotchkiss, Alberta * Hotchkiss, Calgary United States * Hotchkiss, Colorado * Hotchkiss, Virginia * Hotchkiss, West Virginia Business and industry * Hotchkiss (car), a French automobile manufacturer ...

- vehicle use * Vickers.50 Machine Gun - vehicle use *

Grenade

Mills bomb "Mills bomb" is the popular name for a series of British hand grenades which were designed by William Mills. They were the first modern fragmentation grenades used by the British Army and saw widespread use in the First and Second World Wars. ...

* MK3 Rifle Grenade * Molotov Cocktail/Petrol Bomb (made and used during exercises)

Submachine Guns

* M1921 Thompson -Army stockpiles left over from the Revolutionary period * Bergmann MP-18 - Army stockpiles put into commission

Sniper Rifles

Pattern 1914 The Rifle, .303 Pattern 1914 (or P14) was a British service rifle of the First World War period. A bolt action weapon with an integral 5-round magazine, it was principally contract manufactured by companies in the United States. It served as a ...

(Scoped variant)

Shotguns

Winchester 1897 The Winchester Model 1897, also known as the Model 97, M97, or Trench Gun, is a pump-action shotgun with an external hammer and tube magazine manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The Model 1897 was an evolution of the Winches ...

* Unidentified 12 Bore Shotgun

Melee Weapons

Pattern 1907 Bayonet The Pattern 1907 bayonet, officially called the Sword bayonet, pattern 1907 (Mark I), was a British bayonet designed to be used with the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) rifle. The Pattern 1907 bayonet was used by the British and Commonwealth f ...

* Irish Army officers sabre

Anti-Tank Weapons

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle The Boys anti-tank rifle (officially Rifle, Anti-Tank, .55in, Boys, and sometimes incorrectly spelled "Boyes"), is a British anti-tank rifle used during the Second World War. It was often nicknamed the "elephant gun" by its users due to its si ...

* Vickers QF 2-Pounder Anti-Tank Gun * 25 lb Anti-Tank mine (Irish made) * The 'De Valera' mine (Irish made)

Artillery

Mortars

* Brandt Mle 27/31 * ML-3 Inch *

Brandt Mle 1935 The Brandt Mle 1935 60-mm mortar (french: Mortier de 60 mm Mle 1935) was a company-level indirect-fire weapon of the French army during the Second World War. Designed by Edgar Brandt, it was copied by other countries, such as the United States a ...

Field artillery

QF 18-pounder gun The Ordnance QF 18-pounder,British military traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately or simply 18-pounder gun, was the standard British Empire field gun of the World War I, Fi ...

BL 60-pounder gun The Ordnance BL 60-pounder was a British 5 inch (127 mm) heavy field gun designed in 1903–05 to provide a new capability that had been partially met by the interim QF 4.7 inch Gun Mk I - IV, QF 4.7 inch Gun. It was designed for both ...

QF 4.5-inch howitzer The Ordnance QF 4.5-inch howitzer was the standard British Empire field (or ‘light’) howitzer of the First World War era. It replaced the BL 5-inch howitzer and equipped some 25% of the field artillery. It entered service in 1910 and rema ...

Anti-Aircraft Guns

Bofors 40mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

* QF 3-Inch 20-cwt * QF 3.7-Inch * QF 12-Pounder 12-cwt (modified for anti-aircraft purposes)

Coastal Defence Guns

* BL 9.2 Inch * BL 6-Inch * QF 12-Pounder 12-cwt * QF 4.7 inch

Armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs)

Armoured cars

Rolls-Royce Armoured Car The Rolls-Royce Armoured Car was a British Armored car (military), armoured car developed in 1914 and used during the World War I, First World War, Irish Civil War, the inter-war period in Imperial Air Control in Transjordan, Palestine and Mesopot ...

Landsverk L180 The Landsverk L-180, L-181 and L-182 are a family of armored cars developed by the Swedish company AB Landsverk during the interwar years. They had a good international reputation for being fast, robust and reliable and were acquired in small num ...

Leyland Armoured Car Leyland Armoured Car refers to four armoured cars, built between 1934 and 1940, which were used by the Irish Army. The first Leyland Armoured Car was built in 1934, and three more were built by 1940. The Leylands served with the Irish Army until ...

Beaverette Standard Car 4x2, or Car Armoured Light Standard, better known as the Beaverette, was a British improvised armoured car produced during the Second World War. History The first version of the vehicle was built in 1940 by Standard Motor Company at ...

* Universal 'Bren' Carrier * Ford MK V * Ford MK VI *

Ford MK IV The Ford GT40 is a high-performance endurance Auto racing, racing car commissioned by the Ford Motor Company. It grew out of the "Ford GT" (for Grand tourer, Grand Touring) project, an effort to compete in European long-distance sports car racin ...

* Dodge MK VII * Dodge MK VIII * GSR Morris MK IV

Tanks

Landsverk L-60 The Landsverk L-60 was a Swedish tank developed in 1934. It was developed by AB Landsverk as a light tank which included several advanced design features such as torsion bar suspension, periscopes rather than view slits and all-welded constructi ...

* Vickers MK. D

AFV Armaments (not including small arms used as armaments)

* Madsen 20mm * QF 6-Pounder

Marine Service vessels

* Muirchú * PAS Fort Rannoch * MTB-1 * MTB-2 * MTB-3 * MTB-4 * MTB-5 * MTB-6 * Various port control pilot boats

Other vehicles

* Morris Commercial C8 FAT * BSA M20 500cc Motorbike * Morris Commercial CDSW * Leyland Retriever Machinery Lorry

References

{{Weapons

World War II Weapons In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Ireland in World War II