WW1 'Periscope Prism company' sniper scope???

[lmg15]

More rich veins of discussion!
For my tuppence worth, I have never seen any scopes marked for MNk.VI ball, but as far as I can make out, the whole Gallipoli campaign was fought on Mk.VI ammo, as well as the early campaigns such as Kut and Egypt / Palestine and Mesopotamia. Certainly the Gallipoli / Suvla Bay campaigns used snipers as enthusiastically as anywhere else, but mainly using SMLE Mk.IIIs with range sights (such as Mues) or just plain iron sights. Billy Sing was renowned for his sniping prowess and used a spotter with a spotting scope (probably ex signals issue).

My understanding is that Mk.VI was used on the Western Front as well, but mainly by second echelon rifle users such as ASC and Artillery. A couple of SMLE Mk.IIs have turned up marked to Western Front artillery units still sighted in Mk.VI. To what extent the BEF of 1914 rushed to France with Mk.VI sighted rifles I don't know, but I have seen the odd reference to this.

Certainly by the time the ANZAC troops returned to Egypt in late 1915 with their Mk.VI sighted rifles, they exchanged them all for new UK production sighted in Mk,VII so that their debut on the Western Front in mid 1916 would 'fit in' logistically.

The Aldis on PPC mount without the windage prism is unexpected, as that would demand a very high degree of precision in the mounting of scope to rifle. Not impossible, but not very convenient either, as it would demand that the sniper memorise the offset for various ranges. I have seen at least six of the Aldis / PPC scopes (four in the flesh), being 3 x No.3s and 3 x No.4 - all having the deflection prism and 1916 scope manufacture dates.
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Although I had never seen any of the Aldis scope in this configuration until the last three years or so, the number that have come out of the woodwork seems to rank them with the Purdeys, H&H and standard PPC scopes. This may be some sort of statistical anomaly, but there (to my own surprise) it is...

Regarding PPC scopes, I have had a thorough look at mine and cannot find a scope serial number anywhere. The only number appears to be the rile number inscribed on one of the mounting rings, and on the leather case. Hence, it will be difficult to get a good chronology of the PPC scope production if that is the case with all PPC scopes. I have taken details of scopes I have seen in collections and on ebay, etc, and there is a preponderance of Enfield serial numbers in the S, T, U, V and Y range, with an 'H' out on its lonesome. My data on Enfield production in the war years is sketchy. I was very straight forward and linear from 1907 to 1914 where the serial numbers track production numbers OK, but when production really ramped up during WW1, Enfield was cycling through its four digit A to Z prefixes three times a year (ie, there could be three Enfield Rifles with the same date and serial number produced in a given year), so it gets difficult to track runs of rifles fitted with scopes, or attach much meaning to them on the physical evidence that remains.

ATB, D.