Lee Enfield at War

[Luis Bren]

American Labour representatives looking at a British soldier presenting his Lee Enfield rifle. Cassel Hill, 11 May 1918. Note two wound stripes on his left sleeve.



A front line trench held by the 1/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment near Armentieres in March 1915. Note the old Long Lee Enfield No1 Mk.I Rifles with which the battalion was still equipped.



Snap shooting instruction with a Short Magazine Lee Enfield rifle at the British Army School of Musketry in Hythe, Kent, on 21 January 1915.



British troops stacking salvaged Lee Enfield Rifles at Aveluy, September 1916. These would be sent back to base, stripped and cleaned and reissued.



ROYAL AIR FORCE: THE AIR TRAINING CORPS, 1941-1945.
Cadets of No 228 (Bromley) Squadron ATC receive instruction in firing the .303 Lee-Enfield rifle on the firing range at RAF Biggin Hill, Kent.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Seaspriter]

salvaged Lee Enfield Rifles at Aveluy, September 1916. These would be sent back to base, stripped and cleaned and reissued.

If you look closely at the stack of guns in the centre-left foreground, these look like shattered remnants of weapons. It would be reasonable to guess these were the guns of dead soldiers who met a machine gun bullet or mortar on No-Mans-Land.

Recall the discussion of the cut down "pistol" guns that were used by "tunnel rats" in a thread in January. I'll bet this is how the tunnel pistols came to be -- salvaged from a blown up weapon -- never making it back to an armoury.

[Paul S.]

As I recall, that picture appears in Chris McCarthy's book The Somme: The Day By Day Account.

Also of note in the picture is the stack of Gewehr 1898 Mausers on the extreme left front.

[browningautorifle]

If you look closely at the stack of guns in the centre-left foreground,

At the almost bottom left corner of the pic is what appears to be the front end of a '98 Mauser rifle...wonder if the left of that photo was enemy ordnance?

[Luis Bren]

Posed photograph of infantry sheltering from 'enemy shellfire' beside a knocked-out German PzKpfw III tank, 2 November 1942.

[Paul S.]

At the almost bottom left corner of the pic is what appears to be the front end of a '98 Mauser rifle...wonder if the left of that photo was enemy ordnance?

See comment #48, page 5 above.

[ufo8mydog]

British troops stacking salvaged Lee Enfield Rifles at Aveluy, September 1916. These would be sent back to base, stripped and cleaned and reissued.

This is the first photograph I have seen which shows just how many rifles were recovered from the battlefield after a battle. It really puts into perspective the number of soldiers who were killed or wounded on the battlefield. There must be thousands of rifles there.