Malay contract L2A1

[Brian Dick]

It appears the barrel and bipod assemblies were sourced from CAL in Canada. Note the walnut "handguards" on the legs and late C1A1 stamped front sight protectors.

[Lee Enfield]

It appears the barrel and bipod assemblies were sourced from CAL in Canada. Note the walnut "handguards" on the legs and late C1A1 stamped front sight protectors.

In my junk I have a new in (formerly sealed) box Lithgow L2 bipod assy which I was disappointed and surprised to find when I opened it is CAL marked.

[Brian Dick]

I've never seen an Australian made one. In the early 90's I imported 25 or so of them, all new from a contact in Ontario along with a pile of other C1/C2 parts, some that I'm still using for repairs that come in from customers, (thank Christ for the gas tubes!). They interchange on both inch and metric variants. Anyhow, I remember pricing the beautiful bipods at about $50 each and it took forever to sell them. We only ever built a couple of the L2/C2 semi auto variants and they were lovely rifles. I also had the big disc rear sights for them graduated to 1000m. I had a few of the factory Belgian FAL HB rifles too but never kept one. I always preferred the standard L1A1/C1A1/FAL. Still do!

[nzl1a1collector]

The following parts were Canadian made, but used on the Australian built L2A1 rifles:-

Barrel, Body and TMH parts
PROTECTOR, FORESIGHT
HANDLE, CARRYING ASSEMBLY
SCREW, FORESIGHT PROTECTOR
PIN, STRAIGHT, HEADED
BAND, FRONT SLING, LOOP
FILLER, HOUSING BLOCK
PLUNGER, TRIGGER SPRING

Backsight Parts
SIGHT, REAR
SPRING, BACKSIGHT LEAF
PIN, Axis, BACKSIGHT
LEAF, BACKSIGHT
SCREW, Locking, LINK
SLIDE, BACKSIGHT
SPRING, SLIDE, BACKSIGHT
NUT, ZEROING SCREW
LINK, Locking, BACKSIGHT
APERTURE, BACKSIGHT
SCREW, ZEROING BACKSIGHT

Bipod Parts
BIPOD, RIFLE
LEG, Assembly, LEFT
GUARD, HAND, LEFT
SPRING, HELICAL, COMPRESSION
LINK, BIPOD
PIN, Axis, BIPOD
PIN, Axis, LEG
LEG, Assembly, RIGHT
GUARD, HAND, RIGHT


Australian Parts

Barrel, Body and TMH Parts
PIN, COTTER, s, 3/32 in dia, 1/2 in lg.
BARREL, Rifle, 7.62 MM, WITH PERMANENT FITTINGS (As a complete assembly its "Australian")
LEVER, CHANGE, ASSEMBLY

Backsight Parts
BACKSIGHT, AND COVER ASSEMBLY (As a complete assembly its "Australian")
COVER, BODY WITH PERMANENT FITTINGS

Bipod Parts
RIVET, TUBULAR

All other parts were the same as for the L1A1 Rifle.

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
I agree with that view on use within PARA Battalions at item #6 above. We certainly preferred the L4 7.62 to the GPMG or the L2 for many reasons, mostly surrounding the cleaning regime in constant downpours. This policy certainly continued up into the mid to late seventies from memory. My last Jungle warfare course in 73 confirms it fom some papers I have retained....as you do!!

On the L2A1 I seem to remember the recoil reducer not working for some distant reason and it left a hefty flash compared to the none fitted version, as a result we never used them in Auto at all but the Aussies did.

[Peter Laidler]

I never saw an L2A1 recoil reducer in the flesh and so didn't really understand it. 8 R Malay Regt were not far from us and didn't see one there either. We didn't have them like that in the Battalions down at Company strength. Maybe KtK can show us one stripped down to component form - if they can be stripped. BUT...... It can't be a recoil reducer as defined, it MUST be a muzzle brake. Think 25 pounder or 105mm howitzer here. That's because RECOIL and the inertia it develops is starting to take place and developing all the time while the bullet starts its travel. So in physical effect, recoil has/is already taking place and there's absolutely nothing that the 'reducer' can do about it except as a mass attached to the rifle (and affect the vibrating tube and accuracy? to boot). But what it CAN do is affect the perceived effect of recoil by the expanding escaping gas overtaking the bullet (which it does of course) inside the reducer chamber and pulling the thing plus the rifle forwards. This a VERY simplified and non scientific explanation and guesswork on my part with regards to the workings of the reducer.

At Shrivenham, under the great Lt Col Mike xxxxx who had a way of telling things '....like they are, here, today.....' with no flowery fuzzy logic or crap attached, we had a small class project to see what effect the standard flash eliminator had while acting as a muzzle brake. It's actually true, in scientifically measurable terms, the FE did act as a muzzle brake but in real terms, it was just a very effective flash eliminator.

Sorry to wander off at a tangent this lazy Sunday morning.

I'm surprised the L2 lasted as long as up to '86. The nearest we had was the little L86 LSW that while it was never a 'replacement' for the L4 or GPMG - or anything really, it became a bit of a pig in a poke. It's only real saving grace was that it was an accurate but short range, heavy rifle. And in Gulf 1, even that was questionable!

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
Very Interesting, the L2A1 was an Aussie additive to their necessary armoury, and from memory again was a legacy of their involvement in Vietnam with 8RAR certainly using them up till about 72 when they came home. We saw lads from that Regiment in Malaya in 73 using them who were invaluable teaching what they had learnt fighting the Vietcong.
We of course were issued with ammo on these courses, as Sukarno's Communists were still active in the Malayan Jungle, and one finds blank firing attachments fairly useless when confronted with the Kalashnikov

[Peter Laidler]

8 RAR...... The Grey Eight. Those words brought a warm nostalgic glow to my heart, and misty eyes and took me back a few years.

[Lithy]

In the mid to late '80s the Oz Govt. commissioned a review of likely threats and possible future roles of the ADF and a very expensive white paper was drawn up that stated that our traditional enemy of Musoria was no longer a threat and we were to be more than likely to be involved in counter terrorism measures against Orangeland.

The first big exercise in what was called Low Level Operations against Orangeland was Exercise Kangaroo 1987 (K87) followed by Kangaroo 1989 (K89).

Some legal numpty in Canberra decided that our GPMGs were too warlike to be used in "police" type activities and our use of them could be misconstrued to be an act of war, so they were withdrawn and replaced with L2s and L4s for the Exercises.

I don't know where they found them but there were countless brand new or freshly FTRd L2s and L4s all over the place.

I was an infantry section commander on K89 and had an L2 in my rifle group and my "gun" was an L4. I never had experienced so much immediate firepower at my disposal

At the time we despised the decision to take our trusted GPMGs off us, but in hindsight I think it wasn't a bad trade off.

Too bad I "brassed up" a blacked out 'rover full of DS sneaking in the back of 1Div HQ after an evening of unofficial R&R that got everyone in strife. Me for not following the RFOF and them for obvious reasons.

[Peter Laidler]

The GPMG......... While I was at the Small Arms School I wrote an in-house paper on the GPMG for '.....those higher up' than me. They liked it and had it watered down a tad, slightly edited and published in The Infantryman (the in-house magazine of the Infantry). They deleted one important bit that I added at the end. It said, in effect, '..... next time you are huddled down, protecting yourself from any incoming, while covered in sand and you hear a GPMG open up from close-by just genuflect and thank those two great men. One is looking down upon you while the other invented the GPMG.'

I should have added a third. WO2 Maurice Fogwell who stood up to the Director of Infantry and told him at the end of the trials that there was NO alternative.