Quote Originally Posted by jmoore View Post
Ngib, a bit of feedback would be nice. Feel free to jump in! We are, some of us, a bit "crusty", but are willing to help. A bit of harshness now may be best for your end goal.
Sorry guys, I have been away for a few weeks. I have got to admit the knowledge level on this sight is outstanding and excedes anything I know.

The reason I wrote the essey was I was asked to comment.

I had an Enfield No.4 Mk1 (T) back in the sixties and I don’t have a clue what the stamps were for. One of my claims to fame is I was the last Britishicon soldier to be decorated for an action using this weapon. (Also possible the first with the L42) (In the falklands I carried one of the 9mm welrods the last op it was used on; another claim to fame)

The last time the 303 rifle was used was in Aden during that last days of the withdrawal. We had a number of contacts mainly in the Crater and Ma’alla areas.

This was either with FLOSSY or the NLF. My last sniper operation out there was an OP on the Aden end of the causeway. The general was to hand over to the opposition In the middle of the night and we were cover. Nothing happened and we moved back to RAF Khormasksar where we hung around for a couple of day before getting the last plane.

For any history buffs contrary to popular belief the last plane out was not a VC10 it was an Argosy. This took us to Muharraq in Bahrain. I used to carry my 303 ammo in an Arab bandoleer and we got on the plane fully bombed up.

When we got off in Bahrain we were met by the ordnance guys who slung our Enfield’s in a pile along with any SLR’s or Sterling’s what were deemed not worth keeping. Also the 303 ammo plus my prized Arab bandoleer with the rifle were all sea dumped.

Our uniforms were burnt and we got a free pair of jeans and a heavy duty pullover. The old brown type; also a bottle of whiskey a leave pass and train ticket to the nearest station to what was down as your home address. That was the last time I saw a 303. I did get to keep the old blue training pamphlet(dated 57) as the weapon was to be replaced. Latter we did trails with the replacements; the best was a P14 with a Shultz Larsson barrel. We got the worst.

Now for a question a few years later I got a letter from the adjutant of the Selous Scouts. One of the snipers a guy called Clive Mason had transferred to the Rhodesian army. The letter explained he went out in a blaze of glory with his 303 TS. We could say Clive was the last. As for Captain Peter Mason never heard of him, never heard of Baker Team and doubt if it existed. So who is this guy?

Ok so Peter L will probably find some flaw in my memory but he might remember one of the first guys from the small arms gang to pick our brains. He was QSMI (Doc) Brian Halliday I heard he passed away a few weeks ago. Brian was one of the first post Aden sniper instructor and he served with us as the Small Arms QSMI in the 70s/80s

I think Brian might have been in Oman in the 70's getting operational experience during another stint where we had L42's.