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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Tracie,

Please find a couple of pictures taken of a small display of a couple of our Thompson guns held by

the British Army at the Small Arms School at Warminster.

Captain Peter Laidler, the senior technical Armorer at the School reports: 'The British Army sees

fit to give the Thompson guns a special place at the Small Arms School of the UK Military School

of Infantry at Warminster. On display are two of their many Thompson guns. Shown here are a

Colt model 1921 serial number 482, a captured ex IRA gun and a Savage model 1928 in brand new

condition, unfired and still in its original grease, a gift from the Government of the Ukraine to the

Small Arms School from their stockpiles of Russian lend lease stores, left in the Ukraine following

the collapse of the USSR.

The UK Military also have the reported first Thompson gun to arrive across the Atlantic from the

USA prior to Lend Lease, when the guns were purchased, outright, in gold. This is the gun featured

in the UK Military Small Arms Training booklets in the hands of CQMSI Patrick 'Paddy' Eustace

in 1940.

All the very best and kindest regards from

Peter and son Robert Laidler