Sterling L2A3 New Zealand Contract Serial Numbers

[mrclark303]

Any idea what the S stood for at the start of the Census number on my WW1 SMLE Woodsy?

I assumed​ it stood for Service?

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[Woodsy]

Any idea what the S stood for at the start of the Census number on my WW1 SMLE Woodsy?

I assumed​ it stood for Service?

New Zealand has used a variety of markings over the years and the country is divided into 3 military districts which are largely population based. N = Northern (the top half of the North Island, C = Central (the bottom half of the North Island, S = Southern (the whole of the South Island and Stewart Island). In WW2 the Home Guard rifles, which were largely impressed from the civilian poulation with back-up from obsolete Army stores (mainly MLE's), were stamped with a digit from 1 - 10, a bar, followed by a number. 1 = Auckland in the north, 12 = Invercargill in the south. Thus 10/2443 means rifle 2443 in the Christchurch district. After the war these rifles were first offered back to the owners, and the balance were sold at auction (I recently sold a .303 M95 Winchester with the Invercagill number). Whilst the military districts still exist there is no identifying marks placed on weapons these days. The initial 1988 batch of 5,000 Steyr AUG's were supplied from Austria as Lithgow had not yet got into production, and the serial number on these rifles began with NZ0001 through to NZ5000. I handled NZ0001 after it was recovered from the field after a couple of months of issue, as it was on its way to the Army Museum where it was meant to go when new (another wee 'oops'!).