Range Graduations for MkVI ammunition on British/Dominion WW1 scopes.....

[Daan Kemp]

the Mk.VI ammo was burnt on the beach bonfire

I thought the withdrawal was so quiet the Turks never realised? Fires like that with the noise?

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.

[Nigel]

As promised I did go up in the loft to sort through some files. I found an article "Sniping in Gallipoli" by Wes Olson published in the Australian Shooter (no date that I could find). A few interesting points:
1. There is a picture of 11th Battalion sniper Herbert Hitch with the captured Turkish rifle he used for sniping. His normal duties were of the Battalion's PostMaster.
2. The author refers to telescopic sighted rifles being issued to the filed engineer companies as trench stores which could be requested by units as required. The first use of PPCo. sighted rifles was by the 5th Batt. in June. In August, the 16th Batt. requested " trench periscopes, 12 periscope rifles, three telescopic sight rifles,20 steel loopholes".
3. Other interesting trench stores were Maxim silencers but these would only fit Long Lee Enfields. A Divisional report of October 16th, 1915 noted: the instrument is very effective... and also very effective as a "flame extinguisher" (I think that means flash suppressor) for use for night sniping.
4. On December 9th Corporal John Brown of the 10th Light Horse wrote in his diary "Went up to a good possie and had some sniping with a telescopic rifle".

All the above is not actually from the article I was looking for! I'm now going to have to rip the study apart to find it but hopefully the snippets above lend credence to the argument that telescopic sighted sniper rifles were used on Gallipoli - along with other interesting trench stores such as Maxim silencers.

Roger - Ithink we need to build a Long Lee sniper with Maxim silencer - that would raise a few eyebrows.

[Madzi]

That's fantastic int on the Gallipoli scope use, Nigel! (and damn, just when I thought I was keeping my bucket list achievable...diagram on the Maxim silencer below - looks fascinating. Definitely going to be keeping an eye out for any new forum posts on that one...

[lmg15]

I thought the withdrawal was so quiet the Turks never realised? Fires like that with the noise?

Hi Daan, it was lit just as they got the last troops off. All of the stores an army needs that could not be quietly evacuated over the preceding days was burnt on a big bonfire on the beach.

Attachment 108761

[Daan Kemp]

Thanks lmg15

Hi Daan, it was lit just as they got the last troops off. All of the stores an army needs that could not be quietly evacuated over the preceding days was burnt on a big bonfire on the beach.

Quite expensive flames those. Less expensive than lives though.