Hmm! Daily Mail! I instantly checked the date on the original story ,but it's not 1 April. However, the headline is VERY misleading as it was just a wacky inventor. No service use, not even trials, it seems.
It's a good idea to check everything you read in the Daily Mail.
A misleading headline in the Mail? Surely not.
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
Oh, come on! Apart from excessive length, nothing wrong with the headline. And of course the device was never 'progressed' by the WO. These are the same people that put the mild steel brim-guard on the Brodie on the grounds of troop safety. Meaning you had to, thereafter, remove the stupid thing to take a magnetic compass bearing. More disturbing by far about the story is the revelation that Britain once harboured a whimsical solicitor with a leaning towards melee and mayhem.