P.14 Brass Unit Plate?

[UNPROFOR1994]

Doc,

do you have source for this information?

[browningautorifle]

SAU CIE stands for Saupers Companie

I can back up part of this as Companie is Company in French. That part was clear without typing anything into Google. The rest makes sense. More than the preceeding...

[Patrick Chadwick]

I spent some time looking out for a likely P14 here in Mauserland - and again and again these things turned up. After a couple of years, I gave up - whether French or Dutch, every one I saw was worn out, and would have been a waste of time as a shooter.

6721 Dutch sappers in the East indies? That would seem to be far too many - I tend to the French theory.

[UNPROFOR1994]

"Saupers Companie" isn't correct Dutch, that should say "Sapeurs Compagnie". I've heard and read every possible explanation. Dutch KNIL, Belgian Colonial, Danish, French Foreign Legion...

I'm not saying that my French SAU theory is correct, it's just a theory as I have clearly stated. But the French Sections Adminstratives Urbaines in Algeria is the only (para)military unit that uses the SAU abreviation.

[lawrence_n]

Greetings all. I've recently come into posssession of pretty run-of-the-mill ERA P.14. The volley sight disc is present on the fore stock, but the pointer and the folding peep are long gone. Where I am at a loss is regarding the brass plate spanning the brass stock disc. As you can see from the pic, it's clearly marked with some sort of designation and what I believe to be a rack number. My research has not turned up any definitive information, so I'm turning to the experts for this one. If anyone knows positively what the brass plate denotes, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...DSCN1043-1.jpg

Thanks to all of you for your input, but when I sort this all out I seem to get a lot of "probables". Now, to add to the mix, a pretty knowledgeable guy at a local gun show states pretty definitively that it's Quebec Home Guard. So, round and round she goes again!

[browningautorifle]

Quebec Home Guard.

We did use them for home guard after all. That's what they were relegated to for WW2.

[green]

The P14 was little used in Canada , a recent publication gives the number as 85 compared to c100,000 M17s. These P14s with ID strip appeared on the surplus market at the same time as Indonesian SMLEs, East indies pattern Dutch Mannlichers and M1941 Johnsons. I believe they are Dutch East Indies/ Indonesian.

[browningautorifle]

The P14 was little used in Canada

As a matter of fact my father in law didn't use a P14 but an M1917...I guess you're right. There were some issued to PCMR though, and M1917sn Ross, Winchesters, Savages... I'd still think there would have been some around for other uses though.

[Promo]

Well, at least one P.14 was Canadian used with the W&S scope during WWII

[privatejoker]

For those still looking for a solution to these tags I can confirm they are Indonesian. S.A.U. stands for Staf TNI-Angkatan Udara or Air Force Staff which was previously described by some posters on here. I believe CIE stands for Corps Intendans which in English is Quartermaster Corps. HSN will most likely be the unit, I haven’t found that one out yet but I am aware the Indonesian military love acronyms (they currently have over 20,000 of them in use). The brass tags are of KNIL origin, a throwback to Dutch colonial days, logic says the new independent country carried on the same method of marking that they previously utilised.

There is a Rheinmetall G3 from 1959-61 sold to Indonesia and importantly marked SAU-CIE that was used by Indonesian paratroops in fighting on Papua New Guinea, where it was captured by the Papua Volunteer Corps in the early 1960’s and ultimately handed over to the Dutch military, from whence it found its way into the Dutch Military Museum. There is a Forgotten Weapons article on it. The acronyms have been published in a book on modern Indonesian military usage https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bue...sien/06992.pdf