London Small Arms Co - changeover from No.1 MkIII to MkIII*

[5thBatt]

Its very likely there will be an overlap of serial numbers MkIII vs MkIII* as they would not have been assembled in a single file production line.

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.

[desperatedan]

Its very likely there will be an overlap of serial numbers MkIII vs MkIII* as they would not have been assembled in a single file production line.

Thanks, yes that's what I suspected too but in trying to reconcile numbers it's often been stated that LSA made 50,000 MkIII*s, all in 1918 and Skennerton states that LSA total production in 1918 was 89,990.

This implies that almost 40,000 MkIII rifles would have been made in 1918, and even allowing for overlap with III* production and mine being near the end of the "O' serials - 99999 being the max - most of these 1918 IIIs should therefore have been 'P' prefix.

However I've not yet come across a 'P' serialled MkIII, only III*s with that prefix. Does this mean that LSA made more than 50,000 MkIII*s, is the 89,990 total wrong or if not why have so relatively few 1918 rifles of either Mk turned up?