Lee Enfield at War

[Paul S.]

... Doing a little research, 1st Canadian Div wore a red triangle. ...

That should read 'red rectangle'.

The 48th apparently was nicknamed 'the glamour boys' shortly after their arrival in England. The story was that they were to be paraded before some dignitary and needed to have new puttees issued. The only ones available in the needed quantity were blue. So, the battalion was issued and wore blue puttees for the dog and pony show, earned a nickname and it stuck.

[Surpmil]

You'd think the army could come up with something better than that; "the bluestockings" for example!

The cloth patches were created in the Canadian Corps in WWI to enable instantaneous recognition from as great a distance as possible, rather than having to approach a man and read what was on his shoulder titles. A series of squares, circles or triangles were combined to form a unique emblem for each formation. The idea was perpetuated in WWII and apparently imitated by other armies.

[Luis Bren]

Lance Corporal Charles Jeffrey, Private George McCulloch and Sergeant John Spowart of the Camerons who all won medals for bravery at El Alamein, 26 December 1942.

[Luis Bren]

An infantry section on patrol near El Alamein, 17 July 1942.



---------- Post added at 01:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------

A 15-cwt truck passes a sentry as it leaves Fort Weygand at Palmyra, Syria, 12 July 1941

[Terrylee]

Attachment 60586

My grandfather, T.W. Savory, center, 4th Railway Pioneer Regiment, during the Boer 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.

[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.

[CINDERS]

You may also note in Pic #14 that the disc is missing from the 2nd tommies rifle butt guess you have to eliminate as much as you can in the way of things that will catch the light I like that pic as it shows the different equipment loads carried. I realize in a combat zone the GI would dump most of the unessential kit when the lead started flying.

[Peter Laidler]

There is a similar picture to that showing the salvaged rifles, taken in Europe after the 2nd War. It was from a RAOC Corps Journal. The rifles, Stens (Brens went to Enfield) were put into large crates, washed down and shipped to Fazakerley where they were totally stripped and rebuilt and formed the bulk of the post war FTR programme into the 50's

Looks like someone forgot to pack the ear defenders for the Cadets shooting at Biggin Hill small bore range. Naughty......... However did we manage before?