Brass stock disk

[garra]

Ran across a couple of MKIII, one of them had this brass disk on the right side of the stock, can someone advise me what this signifies.

Information

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[limpetmine]

They were used for marking the brass with stamps to signify what unit the rifle was issued to.

[RobD]

I may be wrong here, but I understand the practice continued till about 1916. Thereafter the stock discs were blank, because (or so I have heard) this information gave the enemy potentially useful intelligence. Most discs on SMLEs are thus blank. In the Boer War (and earlier) similar info is to be found on brass buttplate tang or (in the case of .303s Martinis, Lee Enfield carbines, etc) on brass stock discs.

[garra]

I checked out the rifle again today, and the disk is blank. The manufacturing date was 1916, it is in remarkably good condition. The price on it was $400. I bought a nice one today in a small town nearby, paid $180, it was made in 1943.

[browningautorifle]

Don't get wrapped up in that "giving intel to the enemy" thing. The enemy knows exactly who they oppose in the line of battle. The brass shortage had the discs discontinued and the recess was filled with a plug. That's why the discs are scarce today.

[garra]

They may be scare, but when I was checking out e-bay under Enfield there was a brand new one with screw on the site. Just in case someone is looking for one out there.

[RobD]

BAR, are you certain that, in WW1, "The enemy knows exactly who they oppose in the line of battle.". My grandfather told me he went out on nocturnal trench raids to snatch soldiers from the German lines specificaly to find out who they were facing. If they could not bring back a prisoner they had to bring back insignia. If all this was known, how was it known? And why was he doing all that raiding?

[Thunderbox]

BAR, are you certain that, in WW1, "The enemy knows exactly who they oppose in the line of battle.". My grandfather told me he went out on nocturnal trench raids to snatch soldiers from the German lines specificaly to find out who they were facing. If they could not bring back a prisoner they had to bring back insignia. If all this was known, how was it known? And why was he doing all that raiding?

Prisoners were usually snatched in order to interrogate them about enemy intentions, or even just to assess their morale and physical condition. Line units on both sides nearly always knew exactly who they were facing, and that information was part of the sitrep given to relieving units coming up from rest. Your Grandfather might be describing one of the occasions when they did need to identify units - when one side or the other was reinforcing or switching units just ahead of a major operation. Later in the war, the allies resorted to elaborate deceptions to conceal "signature" troop movements - such as the concentration of the Canadian and Australian divisions before the battle of Amiens in 1918.

[RobD]

Seth, why did stock discs stop showing unit info after about 1916? If there was a shortage of brass ( which sounds bizarre) surely they would not have put in blank discs? Seems to me it was done to make the rifle unit nonspecific.
Rob

[browningautorifle]

During wartime, brass always gets restricted for use. This current war is a good example. Thing are not available to their normal quantities. During the first and second major conflagrations both, production cuts took the form of reducing non essential metals in weapon manufacture for both speed and cost reduction.