This room contains examples of the heavier weapons used at battalion level to ‘fix’ the enemy whilst the lighter troops – the rifle companies - manoeuvre. These weapons are medium and heavy mortars, medium, heavy and general purpose machine guns, automatic grenade launchers and Infantry guns. The room also contains light mortars and flame-throwers usually to be found within Rifle companies.

The three most notable mortars are a barrel and projectile from a WW1 Stokes 3” mortar, Russian 82mm and 120mm WW2 mortars and the British post-WW2 81mm mortar, also adopted by the USA .

The machine guns include Gatling, Gardner and Nordenfelt multi-barrel weapons, an early Maxim, and Vickers 0.303 inch MMG from WW1, and WW2. There is also included the GPMG (SF) sustained fire role.

Infantry guns are limited to a Japanese 75mm battalion gun and US 75mm and 57mm recoilless weapons. There is also a RARDEN cannon, the main turret armament of a Warrior MICV, hardly an Infantry gun but definitely not a MG.

We have several examples of the automatic grenade launcher and flame-throwers.

In each category there are many foreign machine guns and mortars, not least the still-in-use Browning 0.30 and 0.50 calibre machine guns which feature in Afghanistan.

This part of the collection mainly originated from the Machine Gun School, which, with the addition of Mortar and Anti-Tank weapons became the Support Weapons Wing at Netheravon. It closed in 1995 and moved to Warminster.