In 1939, the Section comprised 8 men, a Commander and “Nos. 1 to 7”, of which Nos. 1 and 2 were the Bren group. Nos. 2 to 7 carried rifles. Each man carried three Bren magazines, two in one Basic pouch and a http://www.karkeeweb.com/patterns/1937/1937_associated_equipment_slung.html#band - Bandolier, cotton, 50 rounds in chargers, together with the third magazine in the other Basic pouch. Note the faint hand-written annotation “…Sten or Tommy Gun…”.

In action, the gun group would lay suppressive fire to allow the riflemen to manoeuvre. As in other such sections, the weakness lay in the moment when the gun group had to up and move to catch the riflemen. The rifle group could not match the volume of fire with their bolt action weapons, and so could not equal the job done by the exposed Bren crew. The Corporal would try to guide the actions of his men, and lead in the close assault with his submachine gun. Overall the Section was workmanlike. The rifle group was large enough to sustain casualties and still operate effectively, and its mix of weapons was mostly adequate. It was not particularly suited to street fighting, the immediate nature of encounters requiring a higher portion of automatic weapons which could only be provided by increasing the issue of Sten guns on a local basis.