page_title: Blacker Bombard
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: Blacker Bombard / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: English: Spigot Mortar Point, Brompton This was designed as a mounting point for a mortar, and would have been used by the Home Guard in the event of a German invasion during World War 2. There are storage lockers for ammunition and a pit where the soldiers would have been protected from enemy fire. It is near the Officers Tennis Club.
context_page_description: The Blacker Bombard, also known as the 29mm Spigot Mortar, was an infantry anti-tank weapon devised by Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Blacker in the early years of the Second World War.
  Intended as a means to equip Home Guard units with an anti-tank weapon in case of German invasion, at a time of grave shortage of weapons, it was accepted only after the intervention of Churchill. Although there were doubts about the effectiveness of the Bombard, many were issued. Few, if any, saw combat.
context_section_description: The first Bombards appeared in late 1941, and were issued to both regular and Home Guard units; in Southern Command, no more were issued after July 1942. By that time, approximately 22,000 of the Bombards had been produced and issued to forces throughout the country. By November 1941, concerns were already being aired about the suitability of the weapon and it was unpopular with a number of units; some attempted to trade their Bombards for Thompson submachine guns or refused to use them at all. However, Mackenzie cites the argument of the historian of the Ministry of Food Home Guard battalion, who stated that the issuing of the Bombard meant that the Home Guard was being taken seriously by the government. Mackenzie also argues that the Bombard did have a positive side, as it equipped otherwise unarmed Home Guard personnel with a weapon, and was a 'public relations' success.  It would appear that a number of Bombards saw action with the British Army, being used in an anti-personnel role in the Western Desert Campaign, although their use may have been limited due to their weight. The design of the Bombards was the basis for the Royal Navy anti-submarine weapon known as the Hedgehog.
  Large numbers of fixed concrete pedestals for Bombards were installed and a significant number survive in their original positions in many parts of the United Kingdom. The  Defence of Britain Project, a late-1990s field survey of 20th century military landscape features by the  Council for British Archaeology, recorded a total of 351 surviving pedestals.
caption: An abandoned Bombard emplacement, Brompton, Kent (2007)
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