Mystery part sort of quiz to identify this part

[Lee Enfield]

Browning Automatic Rifle 1918a2 "buffer tube Actuator".

I recognized the logo (New England Small Arms Corporation) was the key for me.

Then I just googled 1918 parts...

Actually, there is more to the "NE" marking story. The marking "NE" indicates it was manufactured by one of several companies that formed a consortium during WWII, known as New England Small Arms. They manufactured BAR parts, and most interestingly to me, they manufactured Reising Submachine Gun magazines. Each member of the consortium were assigned a number, from NE-1 to NE-9. Another writer and I have been trying to determine more details regarding these companies, and the specific designation numbers they were assigned. I've been surveying Reising magazines for a few years now, and have a spreadsheet with data collected from 225 different examples, indicating which manufacturer code is marked on each one. If you're interested, you can read the thread about it on Machinegunboards.com at the link below.

http://www.machinegu...?showtopic=9976

If anyone on this board has more information about the number assignments for each company that participated in the WWII New England Small Arms consortium, I'd be very interested in hearing abut it.

David Albert
dalbert@sturmgewehr.com