Australian issued 1916 Enfield SMLE III* receiver with battle damage

Australian issued 1916 Enfield SMLE III* that has some major damage in the area of the safety catch.

It looks to me to be shrapnel. However, it may also have been a bullet.

The butt socket has been bent to the left, as has the stock bolt. The charger bridge has been sheared off and the receiver wall is way out of spec on the right hand side.

The receiver has early and later govt ownership markings (Arrow inside D) and (D Arrow D). It was re-serialed in service and was at one stage in the 1st M.D. It has a Lithgow 7 '45 barrel. There are no FTR markings.

The sear and stock bolt are Lithgow made.

The barrel has been hacksaw cut an inch forward of the chamber and it has been blued over the cut.

Interestingly it has sold out of service markings on both the receiver and the barrel.

My hypothesis is the the rifle was carried by a soldier in Korea where the rifle sustained the damage. The unserviceable weapon was sent to the battalion armourer and converted to useable components. The wrecked receiver and cut barrel were then stamped as sold out of service and presented to the soldier who carried the rifle as a memento of a close call.

But, of course that is just a guess. If it could talk, I wonder what it would say...

With such damage I doubt the soldier carrying it would have been unscathed of injury. Not sure I’d want the thing back to remind me of that crap day.

"I wonder what it would say... "

"OUCH!"

At the very least.

That flat (and drilled hole) milled into the left side of the receiver and missing charger bridge raise a few suspicions. The most obvious suspicion is that the damage is not battle damage. The flat could be for a scope base of some sort. The missing charger bridge lends some credibility to the probability that a scope was fitted.

Now, the big question is, what caused the damage? It's really anybody's guess. One possibility is it was caught in something, machinery perhaps, and suffered a some type of sheering or crushing damage.

Mind you, that's just my, the resident village idiot's, thoughts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paul S.

That flat (and drilled hole) milled into the left side of the receiver and missing charger bridge raise a few suspicions. The most obvious suspicion is that the damage is not battle damage. The flat could be for a scope base of some sort. The missing charger bridge lends some credibility to the probability that a scope was fitted.

Now, the big question is, what caused the damage? It's really anybody's guess. One possibility is it was caught in something, machinery perhaps, and suffered a some type of sheering or crushing damage.

Mind you, that's just my, the resident village idiot's, thoughts.

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You could very well be right. It’s only speculation on my behalf. Having said that, the sold out of service marks are not in what I understand to be the usual positions (the position they would be applied to a whole rifle) and the barrel has been blued where it was cut. The bluing to me says that somebody went to the trouble of saving it.

Well we can all agree I guess that this receiver is a definite "ZF" candidate....................!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leighm25

You could very well be right. It’s only speculation on my behalf. Having said that, the sold out of service marks are not in what I understand to be the usual positions (the position they would be applied to a whole rifle) and the barrel has been blued where it was cut. The bluing to me says that somebody went to the trouble of saving it.

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Just had another look at the receiver. There are no holes that are not supposed to be there anywhere on the receiver that might have been drilled for a scope. The only non spec hole is the one from the damage!

On the left hand side of the receiver, the ejector screw is in place. One of the charger bridge rivets is missing (with and elongated hole like its been torn out) and one is still in place (its been sheared off flush). The only other holes on the LHS are the gas escape holes, the safety catch screw and the rear trigger guard screw.

Here are some extra pics to show just how bent out of shape this receiver is. An open bolt will fall out of it!

Originally, I was considering restoring it by adding the missing parts, new barrel etc as an example of a rifle with battle damage. However, there are safety concerns to this as it's so out of spec it would be dangerous if someone in the future tried to use it. Further to that, I have no way of accurately replicating what the damage to the stock and other parts of the rifle may have looked.

I'm the eternal pessimist regarding battle damage and all that palava. I'd say that it was sold on as WD surplus and damaged somehow in the outside world afterwards, just as Paul says. Generally speaking, unless there are/is a specific reason otherwise, damaged kit deemed 'V&A' is scrapped and replaced PDQ. Most quartermasters don't look at sentimentality. To them a damaged bit of kit is just a waste of space. In action it is destroyed under what was called 'CO's or QM's powers of. emergency write-off'. In normal times a replacement is issued immediately(?) and the damaged stuff is returned via the usual channels on a one-for-one basis. Sorry, but that's how it is as the sharp end.

If that was battle damage, would not the safety lever etc be munched up and still in there? I dont see how the lever and catch could be removed with that deformation, no signs of burrs and blebs from it being taken out after the damage was done. So that suggests to me that damage with safety stripped out.

The fact that the barrel is cut suggests to me that the rifle was decommissioned. Maybe the grunched safety squished on a brake press was part of that process?

My guess also is that it is mechanical damage. i have seen damage like that on weapons that have been dropped into engine compartments and also having been trapped in revolving turrets of AFV's.

Some old threads with pics about battle-damaged equipment. :thup:

SMLE hit by AP round !! (by Peter Laidler)

Friday 13th SMLE sniper damage (by Kev G)

Exploding P14 Grenade Discharger Cups (by Peter Laidler)

1912 No.1 MkIII Enfield Rifle (Battle Damaged) (by terryinvictoria)

Regards,
Doug

Some very interesting pictures and comments on those rifles the CDN one the shell must have landed pretty much right on top of the poor b*gger was good to see the rifle get back to Canada.
As far as distance between trenches some points in Galipolli the trenches were @10yds apart with the Ausies exchanging jam tim bombs with the Turks cricket balls on more than the odd occasions, with laconic replies of "Play you next summer Johnny" denoting the cricket season.

Some times they exchanged food or notes after the May 1915 truce which was to bury the dead Turks in No Mans Land the Ausies attitude changed about the Turk as they respected him as a soldier an equal of their own high praise coming from our troops;
Some idea of the magnitude of this attack look at the expenditure from the ANZAC's of 303 ammunition!

By the 19th May, the Anzacs were ready.

Between 3.30 am and noon on 19 May, Turkish soldiers hurled themselves at their enemies. As always in this war, when close-packed masses of men attempted to storm strong trench positions defended by thousands of riflemen and machine guns, disaster ensued. Thousands were killed or wounded within metres of the Anzac line, but nowhere was it breached. It was calculated that more than 948,000 rounds of rifle and machine-gun bullets were fired at the Turks.

When the attacks ceased, the scene was horrific. Charles Bean wrote:

... the dead and wounded lay everywhere in hundreds. Many of those nearest to the Anzac line had been shattered by terrible wounds inflicted by modern bullets at close ranges. No sound came from that terrible space.

Of the 42,000 Turkish soldiers involved, 3000 lay dead along the ridge and another 10,000 had been wounded. That day gave new Turkish names to positions on the Anzac battlefield -- Kanli Sirt, Bloody Ridge; Kirmezi Sirt, Red Ridge; and Shehidlar Tepe, Martyrs Hill. Anzac losses amounted to 160 killed and 468 wounded.

Just horrendous Ron.... It must have seemed totally unbelievable to those brave WW1 veterans when war kicked off again only 20 years later.....