german marked SMLE (real or fake?)

[Peter Laidler]

Let me ask anyone else out there who has ever seen a rifle....., any rifle....., that's been through the UK Military FTR programme that has come out still bearing the old unit markings etc etc stamped into the butt. It just wouldn't happen......... Let alone bear German markings......., I mean...., well, they really need to get out a bit more.......... When I say UK Military, I also refer to Lithgow too, who worked pretty well closely to the UK system and even into the L1A1 rifle days, there was always plenty of interchange of ideas, methods and doctrine.

I have recently seen another rifle, a No4T, owned by someone who's had it for 30 years and all that old pure horse manure, stuck at the back of his cupboard and has now decided to sell it. It's a Fazakerley No4 Mk2. But you can't tell him it's a fake. I've even tried telling him in easily understood Army terms of few words. The older they are and the longer they've had it and the more they believe, the more entrenched they become.........

As with the Bren we know about, it wasn't waffen-wotsit (?) stamp as such, just hand stamped locally with the unit identity. Much as we'd paint a butt number on our SA80's now