No1. Mk III usage in WWII?

[Seaspriter]

You're a bad man Seaspriter, that way lies madness and you know it. Before he realises what's happening he'll be looking at his "Enfield" MkIII and his "Fazackerly" No4.... and his TWO No5's, and he'll get itching to acquire a BSA, LSA, Peddled Scheme and Dispersal MkIII to go with the one he's got, and a Maltby, Savage and Long Branch to keep his Faz company.
Oh, and a Long Lee, and a CLLE and....and....

It's called "Enfielditis" -- an addictive disease that is very hard to cure. Fortunately the cost per gun is generally lower than many American guns (such as M-1 Garrands & Carbines, etc.) , until you get the accelerated form of Enfielditis, which drives you to the expensive and exotic versions, then it starts to hurt in the wallet.

[RobD]

Many photos of South Africans from WW2 show the No 1 rifle; TerryLee will know when they adopted the No. 4

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

IIRC the last British made SMLE's are the dispersal rifles assembled in 1944, & as mentioned above Australia & India produced the SMLE even post WW2, so I think the OP could quite reasonably take his pick of either a SMLE or a No4 - or why not get one of each?!?

One of each? Is that even possiable?

[Terrylee]

So far as I can tell from the South African Military Archives, the No.4 rifle saw extremely limited active service with the South African Forces during the Second World War and was not generally issued until the 1950s. I base this view on three documents which I recorded and summarise below:

31.07.1945: (Distribution of Rifles No.4/No.1) Units: 119/30,195. Depots: 31,458/21,996

26.06.1947: "Rifle No.1 Mk.III to be retained as the standard weapon of the U.D.F. (Union Defence Force) and issued to the P.F. (Permanent Force) and A.C.F. (Active Citizen Force) Rifles No.4 to be retained and stored by 81 TS Depot"

26.02.1954: "Rifles No.4........ From 1942 until 1943 some 29,000 No.4 Mk.I were received........ between 1947 and 1948 issues were made of these rifles to local units. At the end of 1948 these rifles were returned to store.......... In 1950 we received 85,000 (No.4s) from the War Office........"