What type of No 4 sniper do I have?

[Surpmil]

There are a number of mysteries I agree Roger. Why the early production "Less Telescope" rifles without "T" stamping or scope number on the wrist for example?

Those early Savages and Maltby's etc. should have been the first to be set up as the need was greatest in 1942/43. But of course when did those marking practices actually come into effect?

We know that few if any rifles with Mk.3 scopes were issued until the war was over or nearly over.

We know from Peter's research, visits to the H&H factory in London etc., discussions with surviving workers in the 1980s that they had one milling machine set up with the jigs to machine the contact surfaces on the pads. How many men & women were on the job? With one machine, given all that is involved in the process, five rifles a day seems quite probable.

It rather looks as though the whole thing was given a rather low priority in the grand scheme; which fits with what we know about the doctrines of the time and the general lack of interest in or appreciation of the value of sniping as method war.

Did the bombing damage to bracket production stall the whole effort for some time? Did it get pushed to the back burner as a result?

Clearly the rifles were not in existence in 1942 and into late 1943 from the inventory referred to. Most likely that is the reason contracts were let in Canada after all, and why rifles were being flown over from Canada as Warren found out, though I expect the push for that came from the Canadian Army who had been waiting in the UK for something to do for two years, using P14s with iron sights, W&S scopes and Alex Martin conversions.

Had production been steaming along in the UK, why bother to let contracts in Canada with thousands of un-mounted scopes sitting in store in the UK?

Did some committee at the War Office decide the scopes then in production were probably not worth fitting to rifles and quietly allow them to be produced and then shoved into storage in the expectation that something better would come along and production could be ramped up at that time?

Lots of strange things happen in wartime, and often other agendas interfere with what would seem to be "common sense".