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Ministry of Defence 1 (MD1), also known as "Churchill's Toyshop", was a British weapon research and development organisation of the Second World War.
Its two key figures were Major Millis Jefferis and Stuart Macrae, former editor of Armchair Science magazine.
MD1 began in "Military Intelligence Research" (MIR). MIR was a department of the War Office set up in 1939 under Lt-Col Joe Holland RE. Holland was the General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) and brought in Jefferis, also a Royal Engineers sapper and explosives expert, with experience in India, as GSO2 to head MIR(c) a division of MIR that was to develop weapons for irregular warfare. Needing special magnets, Jefferis brought in Macrae initially as an outside contractor but later to be brought into uniform and serve as his deputy. Between them they produced the limpet mine, a timed explosive that could be stuck to the underside of a ship.
MIR(c) started in a room at the War Office, Macrae initially secured offices and workshop space at IBC, owners of Radio Normandie, in London. Macrae soon also secured all the staff, including Norman Angier who continued as Assistant Director and senior civilian member of the staff throughout the war. Following an air raid, a large country house The Firs (fortunately the second home of a patriotic Major) was requisitioned and the design and workshops relocated there, in Whitchurch near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire close to the Prime Minister at Chequers. [1] There they developed and to some extent produced munitions.
During the phoney war, MIR(c) was engaged in developing the floating mine required for Churchill's planned Operation Royal Marine which aimed to disrupt German shipping in their inland waterways by dropping these mines into the river at Strasbourg.
Churchill lobbied for recognition of Jefferis, suggesting promotion.
When MIR was combined with other activities to form the Special Operations Executive, MIR(C) instead (in November 1940) became a department in the Ministry of Defence; effectively under the wing of the Prime Minister who was the Minister of Defence. As First Lord of the Treasury as well, Churchill could provide funds. Churchill, Professor Lindemann and General Ismay (Churchill's chief scientific and military advisors respectively) would protect MD1 from the Ministry of Supply and the Ordnance Board whose areas they encroached on. The Ministry of Supply carried out the necessary administration of MD1 but the War Cabinet was in control. Jefferis was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and Macrae to Major.
Other staff at MD1 included Stewart Blacker who was brought in after his privately invented Blacker Bombard was taken on for official development.
With the end of the war and the removal of Churchill from office, MD1 was taken over by the Ministry of Supply and the Weapons research establishment at Fort Halstead with the result that it was disbanded. Macrae felt this was an act of revenge by those who had opposed it and Professor Lindemann. Production machinery went to the Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott effectively for scrapping. Jefferis received an appointment to the Pakistan Army.
The Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank (PIAT) Mk I was a British man-portable anti-tank weapon developed during the Second World War. The PIAT was designed in 1942 in response to the British Army's need for a more effective infantry anti-tank weapon and entered service in 1943.
Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, was a British physicist who was prime scientific adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II.
Hobart's Funnies is the nickname given to a number of specialist armoured fighting vehicles derived from tanks operated during the Second World War by units of the 79th Armoured Division of the British Army or by specialists from the Royal Engineers.
Operation Royal Marine was a military operation in May 1940 of the Second World War, during the Battle of France. The British floated fluvial mines down rivers which flowed into Germany from France. The plan was to destroy German bridges, barges and other water transport. After several postponements insisted on by the French government, fearful of German retaliation, the operation began on 10 May 1940, when the German offensive in the west began.
The Blacker Bombard, also known as the 29-mm Spigot Mortar, was an infantry anti-tank weapon devised by Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Blacker in the early years of the Second World War.
The "Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74", commonly known as the S.T. grenade or simply sticky bomb, was a British hand grenade designed and produced during the Second World War. The grenade was one of a number of ad hoc anti-tank weapons developed for use by the British Army and Home Guard after the loss of many anti-tank guns in France after the Dunkirk evacuation.
The No. 76 special incendiary grenade also commonly known as the A.W. bomb and SIP grenade, was an incendiary grenade based on white phosphorus used during World War II.
A limpet mine is a type of naval mine attached to a target by magnets. It is so named because of its superficial similarity to the shape of the limpet, a type of sea snail that clings tightly to rocks or other hard surfaces.
Aniseed balls are a comfit type of hard round sweet sold in the UK, Ireland, Malta, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. They are shiny and dark reddish brown, and hard like Gobstoppers, but generally only 1⁄2 inch (13 mm) across.
A pencil detonator or time pencil is a time fuze designed to be connected to a detonator or short length of safety fuse. They are about the same size and shape as a pencil, hence the name. They were introduced during World War II and developed at Aston House, Hertfordshire, UK.
The Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD), also known as the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapon Development and colloquially known as the Wheezers and Dodgers, was a department of the British Admiralty responsible for the development of various unconventional weapons during World War II.
A Z Battery was a short range anti-aircraft weapon system, launching 3 in (76 mm) diameter rockets from ground-based single and multiple launchers, for the air defence of Great Britain in the Second World War. The rocket motors were later adapted with a new warhead for air-to-ground use as the RP-3.
Major-General Sir Millis Rowland Jefferis KBE MC was a British military officer who founded a special unit of the British Ministry of Supply which developed unusual weapons during the Second World War.
Armchair Science was a British monthly journal of topical and popular science articles published from 1929 to 1940; it ceased publication because of wartime paper shortages. The first editor was A. Percy Bradley, a mechanical engineer associated with Brooklands, then Professor A. M. Low. Issue one included: “Wonders of the Night Sky”; “How Flowers Breed and How they Fade”; “We Eat Bad Cheese, and why not Bad Meat?”; and “What is Noise?”. It cost one shilling, later reduced to sixpence. The publisher was Gale & Polden Ltd, London.
In military munitions, a fuze is the part of the device that initiates function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fuze designs can be seen in cutaway diagrams.
Colonel Robert Stuart Macrae TD was an inventor best known for his work at MD1 during the Second World War, his best known invention being the sticky bomb.
Edward Terrell (1902–1979) was a British Liberal politician, a successful barrister and magistrate with a flair for invention; by 1940 he had registered a number of patents relating to pens, ink bottles and peeling knives. When war came, he volunteered for the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Special Branch of the Volunteer Reserve to run an information section.
The Ministry of Defence was a department of the British Government responsible for defence and the British Armed Forces.
Major Cecil Vandepeer Clarke MC (1897–1961) was an engineer, inventor and soldier who served in both the First and Second World Wars.
The Firs is a country house in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire.