The pike was issued as a British Home Guard weapon in 1942 after the War Office acted on a letter from Winston Churchill saying ""every man must have a weapon of some kind, be it only a mace or pike"". However, these hand-held weapons never left the stores after the pikes had "generated an almost universal feeling of anger and disgust from the ranks of the Home Guard, demoralised the men and led to questions being asked in both Houses of Parliament". The pikes, made from obsolete Lee–Enfield rifle bayonet blades welded to a steel tube, took the name of ""Croft's Pikes"" after Henry Page Croft, the Under-Secretary of State for War who attempted to defend the fiasco by stating that they were a "silent and effective weapon".