WWII special assault rifles built for the SAS only

[Strangely Brown]

You cannot help feeling that if this was genuine it would have been documented after 73 years...

[GeeRam]

If, and it's a big IF it's a genuine locally modified in the field No.5 by the Regiment, it certainly wasn't during WW2....for obvious reasons.
If genuine, likely during Malaya ops in the 1950's perhaps, but, still not convinced.

[skiprat]

The "SERIAL NUMBER" label has a very 70's look, reminds me of the SUIT sight label,

[Roger Payne]

I can't pretend to know much about oddball No5's but it just screams out 'Lash up' to me. Surely, even small scale but approved mods would have been marked cleanly, probably with a pantograph, not stamped with individual letter stamps like this?

And they added 'SAS' just in case you needed telling.......but were so professional they couldn't get all three letters in a straight line? Or am I mis-seeing it?

It also seems odd that they couldn't find a forend to butcher that hadn't already had an 'Ishy' screw through it.

It looks to me like someone got creative with a sporterized No5 & an old I/R sight they had lying about.

And if it were just to be a genuine locally extemporized unofficial one-off set up, unless someone kept photographs &/or other documentation to confirm it, there is no way of ever proving it, so it probably comes down to whether you want to believe it is what it claims to be or not!

Just MHO.

[Seaforth72]

I agree that the No. 5 Mk. I modified as shown is likely a "Bubba" creation.

[CINDERS]

Scrounging kit of anyone that had something you wanted

Of which the Australian troops excelled through both wars in fact you did not even have to be the enemy to be scrounged off........

Also undated pic of British soldiers training with the FS knife it does not say if they were Commandos or SAS

I guess Lee Enfield over the passage of time that allot of the groups were incorporated into the system as the training of individuals encompassed skills of other trades that way they have an all in one combatant specialist.
If you look at the SAS now they just about do it all the US has the SEALS even the latter are broken up in the smaller groups with even more specialized skills set I think it is the DVGRU it would probably get down to the good old bean counters as why have 5-6 teams when you can have just 1 or 2 just incorporate a bigger spread of specialized training.

[Lee Enfield]

The action appears to be dated 1946 so it probably wasn't issued during ww2.

[green]

Noticed the caliber stamped on the body.
A highly speculative item.

[Daan Kemp]

The brutalised No 5. Nobody in their right mind would fire that more than once, the knife edge supposed to be the butt will see to that. The recoil will definitely bend the dodgy removable stock. Getting your cheek to use the sight close t the stock invites stitches to your cheek. Etc, etc. The SAS aren't stupid.

Comparing the period from the disbandment of the SAS to the reforming will probably date that monstrosity to when the SAS didn't exist.

[GeeRam]

Of which the Australian troops excelled through both wars in fact you did not even have to be the enemy to be scrounged off........

+1

My Dad was very complimentary about the Aussies in this respect, said they were fine teachers in this......err, soldiery art....
His RE unit were billeted with an Aussie unit in the Middle East at some point, and he came back from that tour with a prized Aussie issue BD blouse and trousers, no doubt putting his new found skills to good use. It became his 'best walking out' BD as he said the wool on the Aussie BD was much nicer quality than normal British issue.