Reports place Tommy guns, grenades, and other small arms aboard coastal craft for close-range fighting. Officers conning exposed boats could use those weapons when an action closed instead of simply sheltering. The Royal Navy often looked the other way as long as a boat still floated and could perform its missions. One possible supply route ran through dockyard stores holding large wartime stocks and replacement weapons. That freedom helps explain why formal armament lists are only samples and why the source of some crew-acquired weapons is difficult to trace.
Notable Point · 2:13:08-2:15:12
Close-range combat encouraged unofficial armament
Reports of Tommy guns, grenades, and other unofficial weapons show why published coastal-craft armament lists can only approximate what crews actually took into close-range action.