Looking for WWI-era soldier experiences/thoughts on the SMLE rifles

[Colonel Enfield]

I'm engaged in an SMLE-related research project at the moment and I'm trying to find some first-hand accounts by British/Empire soldiers in WWI of what it was like using their SMLEs in combat etc.

Can anyone point me towards some sources for this?

Information

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[mr.e moose]

History books are all you have, Sadly all of the WW1 vets are gone. WW2 vets are fading fast also, lost the father in law last month. If you know a veteran, Thank him while you still can.

[CINDERS]

HAVE A LOOK THROUGH THESE TITLES I HAVE MOST ARE 1st ED'S. THEN GET ONTO THE KINDLE BOOK SITE FOR AN ELECTRONIC COPY OR AMAZON.COM AND SEE IF YOU CAN GET COPIES YOU REQUIRE. FAILING THAT A RE-PRINT AND IF YOU CAN FIND ONE A 1ST EDITION TO BUY SOME TITLES MAY COST YOU A FEW 000'S $.
THERE IS NO ONE BOOK THAT WILL JUST RELATE TO UTILIZING THE 303 RIFLE IN BATTLE YOUR GOING TO HAVE TO READ AND TAKE NOTATIONS GOOD LUCK........

Sorry for the caps guys, I am not shouting I looked up to see I had the Cap's lock on and being lazy left it as is. I have added more to my WWI 1st ed's but there is enough there to give you plenty of the information you require.

[muffett.2008]

Try TROVE, use the letters/diary search or in newspapers, type "letters from the front".

[Strangely Brown]

I would gave thought the Imperial War Museum would have been your first port of call.

Imperial War Museum

[Colonel Enfield]

Thanks for the replies folks! There's a stack of books next to my desk but the electronic-age chap in me was hoping I wouldn't have to read through them all to find a paragraph or two about the efficacies of the SMLE against the Hun

I did a search on Papers Past (the NZ equivalent of Trove) but it didn't yield much except some interesting reading on the Canadians ditching the Ross events in WWI.

[muffett.2008]

If you are serious, you should use TROVE, I have numerous snippets from there on all subjects that interest me, this example is from my MAD MINUTE file.
Attachment 78538
There are some very interesting stories told in other articles.

[Richard Hare]

The books of Lyn MacDonald are very good for first hand sources. (1914, 1915, The Somme, etc.)

I can't quote anything precisely as it is a long time since I read them, but recall an engagement on the Marne I believe (1914) where a young lad gave his impression of his first engagement, the officer calling the range very coolly as the Germans advanced, "At 400"....".......... "At 300"......and then "At 200, ten rounds rapid! " The young man's comment was, "we just mowed them down like logs!, and I thought "What a marvelous army we are!:

This is likely a very poor version of the quote, so I will endeavour to find it for you. There are many in these books as she interviewed a great many old veterans.

Another later in the war, in Polygon wood, managed to bag 3 pheasants and seven Germans as they scooted across a ride, for ten shots. He gave his officers a brace of pheasants, and they didn't complain about his wasting ammunition!
The books I mention bring up many such endearing anecdotes.

Another in 1914, concerned confusion, where one of the battalion's best rifleman had been shooting at French Cavalry all morning, ...thinking they we German 'Hoolans' !!

[Frederick303]

Macbride's book the "Emma Gees" (or something close) covers the Vickers in depth and the A Rifleman Went to War" covers the rifles in depth, both the SMLE and the Ross.

I seem to recall that Storm of Steel covers the German problems with the lange Gewehr (sights were sighted for 400 M minimum) and I seem to recall that that there is an account by a vet of the 27th US division, that was equipped with the SMLE and fought with a British Corp and had a fair bit on the lee Enfield and comparison with the M1903. I cannot recall the title but he was with an attached MG battalion, somewhere around 105 and I think the unit was from New York.

[Ridolpho]

"Gallipoli" by Peter Hart is very well documented with hundreds of extracts from personal letters and reports. There are numerous references to rifles jamming up solidly during the beach landings at Anzac, Helles, and Suvla Bay. Apparently even the relatively reliable SMLE didn't fare well upon immersion in sandy, turbid water. I notice that other books about different Great War topics by Hart are written in a similar style with abundant first hand descriptions.

Ridolpho