Greek Enfields

[Peter Laidler]

Anyone who served in Cyprus during the 70's invasion period will agree that the Greeks were pretty good at maintaining their weapons but the Turks weapons weren't in ....... how do we say this politely.............. not in the best conditions that you'd expect to find them. They had a real mish mash too. They seemed to lack things, like ability to clean, oil and maintain!

On Brians mixed up serial number, I remember a LB Mk1* rifle having an indistinct LB number that had been F/FTR in the early 50's being numbered with a BSA R-35xxx prefix serial number, from its FTR days. The person still owns it! At the rear of the receiver body it also had engraved 'FOR FACTORY DEFENCE USE ONLY'

[Brian Dick]

I know that MoD didn't have receivers as replacement parts and when the receiver was worn out it was done. The Canadian system had replacement receivers dated up to 1956 as far as I know. The Long Branch C No.4Mk.1 with the Maltby receiver is a mystery as it hasn't seen allot of use and all that's been changed is the receiver with the original serial number ground and the 92L, ( I goofed before as it's a 92L not 95L rifle), serial number stamped in it's place. I also have a LB 1956 dated receiver stamped 77Lxxxx which was 1944 original production serial range I think. Interesting rifles. Wish they could talk.

[Peter Laidler]

In our army, every weapon except one had a part that was known as the 'master component' which was never available as a spare part. This prevented anyone making a weapon up from spares. The exception was the old .50" short M8C spotting rifle. Not that anyone would find a use for one even if they did make one up! Australia and NZ were the same too. How Canada fared with this quartermasters nightmare is anyones guess.

[Brian Dick]

As I mentioned before; the strange part is that the rifles I've seen with the replacement receivers were all in what looked to be nice, original conditon before the receivers were replaced. I have another 1956 LB receiver here with matching bolt that was used for a lunch box C No.7 project. I've since pilfered the barrel and built a shooter for myself using an original surplus C No.7 receiver. The 1956 was numbered in the 1Lxxx serial range as a .303.

[gblacksmith]

The rifle in question has none of the usual receiver markings, but all components are green-parkerized and marked LB.

---------- Post added at 02:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:22 PM ----------

......And the serial # begins with "NB" as a prefix

[Brian Dick]

All of the Greek issue LB No.4 rifles I have/had were normal with no distinct Greek ownership marks in the metal or wood, just the little stickers on some of them as mentioned before. A picture of yours would be helpful.

[villiers]

Does my Charnwood .308 conversion qualify as being "Greek"??

[Roy]

A little OT but its a little story. When my dad was travelling through Greece and Turkey on the early seventies him a and a mate came across a some Greek soldiers on the border, They were armed with 1903 Sprinfields and Brens. Due to some mix up someone had forgotten to tell the soldiers that 30.06 ammo doesn't go in a bren gun! so they found some -303 and showed the soldiers how to load a bren mag and the diference between the two cartridges.

[Brit plumber]

Is this the type of sticker found on the butts

[5thBatt]

In our army, every weapon except one had a part that was known as the 'master component' which was never available as a spare part. This prevented anyone making a weapon up from spares. The exception was the old .50" short M8C spotting rifle. Not that anyone would find a use for one even if they did make one up! Australia and NZ were the same too. How Canada fared with this quartermasters nightmare is anyones guess.

Lithgow also replaced receivers & reallocated serial numbers.

My most interesting rifle.