Lee Enfield at War

[browningautorifle]

note piling swivel

Older rifles had them and then the drawings later excluded them. Ishapore for instance, Australia too...we all have examples of blank swivel mounts...I can't say which year they were written out though.

[Peter Laidler]

In a lot of these cases, it's like L1A1 rifles with old style front sling loops and plastic furniture. It is simple obsolescent - so remains in place until it needs replacing. Then it's replaced with existing stocks until stocks are exhausted. And when stocks of the old sling loops or wood pistol grips or piling swivels are gone, they're replaced with new. Or in the case of the piling swivel, not replaced at all.

L1A1 gas cylinders were a good point. It was a B class modification but you'd still see the old obsolescent gas cylinders still on rifles for years and years

[Luis Bren]

New Zealand infantry greet a Matilda tank crew after the meeting of the Tobruk garrison and relieving forces, 2 December 1941.

[Luis Bren]

Infantry and carriers of the Grenadier Guards advance over difficult terrain near the Kasserine Pass, 24 February 1943.

[5thBatt]

Older rifles had them and then the drawings later excluded them. Ishapore for instance, Australia too...we all have examples of blank swivel mounts...I can't say which year they were written out though.

That was in 1941

[Luis Bren]

THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH AFRICA 1942. Infantry manning a sandbagged defensive position near El Alamein.

[Vincent]

My dad liberated pair of German bino's. He said they were superior to the British issued ones he was given.

My German uncle liberated a British petrol stove.

[Peter Laidler]

They do say that every other nations kit is ALWAYS better than your own Vince. Vehicles, weapons, optics (as discussed on this forum recently). But guess who's kit prevailed......... It does seem strange about your dads choice of binoculars. Because theMk2 binos that the NCO is peering through were STILL in service - albeit on the cusp of obsolescence - in 2008/9. Not a bad track record is it?

[browningautorifle]

The other guy's kit was always an attractive option to us because you didn't owe it to anyone at day's end and it wasn't layed out for inspection in the morning. Then there was always the old soldier LCF (look cool factor) that accompanied...

[Luis Bren]

Infantry demonstrate how they used ladders to scale the sides of Wadi Zigzuoa on the Mareth line, 27 March 1943.