What’s your Lee Enfield Holy Grail?

[Seaforth72]

My Holy Grail not yet found: Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk. I (T), Canadian, with service combat history, ideally from the sniper himself.

In the meantime I am content with my "bird in the hand" No. 4 Mk. I (T) 1943 BSA with No. 32 Mk. I scope (scope mismatch # to rifle and missing rear eye shade) and the accompanying Scout Regiment Telescope.

Biggest regret: I sold my No. 4 Mk. I (T) 1945 British sniper rifle, NOS in the chest, which I bought from Lever Arms in Vancouver, BC, Canada circa 1972. They were normally $100. I waitied for the January 25% off sale and got it for $75!

Above all - the one I would NEVER part with is my slightly battered 1918 Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk. III* which was carried by a member of the Essex Scottish Regiment on Red Beach in the Dieppe Raid on 19 August 1942, was brought back by a wounded survivor (one of only 51 Essex Scottish men who made it back to the UK) and was hidden under the floorboards of his tent. http://www.ekscot.org/index/history/dieppe-raid/

My Dad, as a replacement Lieutenant to the regiment found it. He took it to the armourer Sergeant. The butt was damaged and the bore was rusty. The unit had by then just switched to the No. 4 Mk. I Lee-Enfield. The Sgt. put it in the vice, took a straight chisel and went "bang, bang, bang", thus creating the /|\ facing another /|\ mark, the sign of being released from service and threw it in a corner.

Dad pointed to his two pips his shoulder (Lieutenant rank) and said "Sergeant, we are going to fix that damned thing!" They grafted on a butt from a No. 4 Lee-Enfield. Cleaned the bore which retained pitting half way down the barrel. Dad then carried the rifle in service with the Essex-Scottish and while he was attached to No. 4 Commando[/B], in preference to the heavy Thompson 1928A1 Machine Carbine (SMG).



Lieutenant A. H. Stevens with this Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk. III* in England in 1943.

The only other Dieppe Raid rifles that I know of are in the Canadian War Museum (no bolt, no magazine) picked up by a French family, and a stone encrusted one found in the ocean off Dieppe and now in the Dieppe Museum.

His father had been taught to shoot by one of Annie Oakley's co-workers. In WWI he was the Musketry Officer for the 2nd Canadian Division and later he was an MG instructor with the Royal Flying Corps (Canada) in WWI. Dad grew up as a marksman. One day after fixing up the rifle. out at the ranges in England, the Battalion snipers were practicing with their brand new No. 4 Mk. I (T) sniper rifles. Each put a shilling in a hat for the winner. Dad told his batman to get get that f_____g rifle out of his quarters. Using his old fashioned iron sights he took home the prize. When he was later wounded on a Commando Raid in 1943, he was sent back to Canada as an instructor. He brought his Lee-Enfield home (including sling, bayonet, scabbard and frog) and I now have these.