Use of the L42 in the Falklands Conflict

[Roy W]

There were L42's seized at Gritvyken and Stanley, there are photos of the surrender at Stanley with at least one L42 on the floor. Quite feasable he nicked an L1A1 off one of those. The turrets are correct for an L1A1 as is the engraving on the side of the tube. A war souveneir

[Gil Boyd]

Roy,
You are probably right, but the "records" show no "L42A1's were lost, and only one was written off on Mount Tumbledown which is my current rifle which I know for example, was strapped over the back of L/Cpl Nige Eyre of 2 SCOTS when he took a strike to the action and injured him on the assault, as he was hit in the neck from debris from it.
You can only go by provenance like that and track it back or forwards to authenticate something as precious as an issue specialist rifle!!

The particular entry on that MOD L42A1 list was made by Peter Laidler so I would put 100% credibility on that, as the rifle was repaired from being written off as a direct hit on the action and put back in the system.
Scopes would probably have been swiped of rifles as an easy to unscrew item and put under an Argie Parka or used to gain an optical advantage for a soldier, who knows, but I was told that all weapons were returned at the end of the war!

[fastback]

I already wrote to the veteran to give details of how he obtained that scope and photos to track him down (I wish he responds, for many, it is not easy to talk about this times ), so he is a member of the Marine Corps commandos. The scope looks in very bad condition, as it saw some combat or dropped it does not seem feasible to me that it was captured on April 2 (by order there was no intention of causing English casualties and the combat was limited) also if a sniper rifle had been captured it would have been kept original and send to continent as a war treasure or used as a sniper rifle, it would not have been allowed to appropriate parts (here in the museums there are somes Enfield Rifles captured in falklands) .This brings to mind a story about a argentine of a unit that saw intense action in combat that use a SMLE (almost crazy as mad jack churchill with his sword), I hope to put together a post about it.

[55recce]

Please note that I have not accused anyone of telling porkies or saying that you are all wrong. Please do not put your words in my mouth.

I very carefully used the term "This seems a little unlikely" based on the accounts that I could find and urged research so that information which has been proved incorrect (American snipers and ditched L42) is not further perpetuated.....

[Gil Boyd]

Fastback,

The image shows two Kukris crossed as well as the scope, I would liked to have seen the Argentinian soldier try and take those two from its wearers down south.
They were waiting for blood!!

[fastback]

Well, if we look at the number of casualties except for those of the Belgrano cruiser, we find that both sides suffered a very similar number, as some british soldier said...no picnic, therefore both sides fought with courage, of course, the one that made the least mistakes wins the battle, and the military junta had no plan to the islands after April 2 ...they left the soldiers without supplies, without long-range guns to face the fleet (in the last days 155 mm arrived but there was little ammunition and they could not be moved) and worse still the stupidity to refuse deploy the a4 skyhawk in the islands (every jet should travel 700km to atack the fleet, thats ridiculous..but thanks to the pilots they sunk 7 ships and hit another 15 ! ) , the invention of the mm38 itb that damaged the glamorgan would have come very well if it were available on May 1 and not when it was too late ... As for the ornamentation where the scope appears It is just that, a grouting of militaria from the former commando he is not a collector, various miscellaneous pieces without any historical value. Of course, the Kukri are not from Malvinas (but maybe from Blue Helmets peacekeeping missions as in Haiti where the Gurka exchange them for anything). As I understand the Gurkha did not fight except for some skirmish in the final days. On the other hand, the scope L42 that was brought from the Falklands, I think it has a great value at least for us to know how it got into their hands and why the assembly is upside down or the fixing screws are missing
why is it so beaten without a turret and rusty ... Let's keep the study seriously and Without fanaticism ... enough time has passed so that there are no grudges (England always had many ties to Argentina, railways, customs such as tea and polo that are here regardless of the conflict)

[Surpmil]

It appears the scope was deliberately vandalized before being either surrendered - and later left in an exposed dump of captured weapons - or else buried or hidden somewhere. Clearly the big dent on the ocular end could be accidental, (though highly unlikely), but the missing drum would mean someone wrenched it off past the grub screw - not impossible - and the reversed mounts must have been done deliberately also. If whoever did the job had just taken it apart and scattered the pieces there seems little chance they would ever have been reunited. Presumably it was issued to the Royal Marines of the original garrison and either surrendered or dumped somewhere and later found by some Argentinian? Snipers don't generally advertise their affiliation after all.

The L1A1 markings are visible. Looks like the last two digits of the SN might be "52"

Is that a serial number on the right hand kukri?

[fastback]

The truth seems a little funny to me, since even after 38 years, some are affected by the Falklands conflict trying to minimize a reality, something as small as the appearance of a scope of l42 in search of excuses and doubts I don't see any shame that we have a scope, in fact we both lost much more valuable things in the conflict. Argentines assumed that the operation was crazy, since only the occupation of April 2 was planned and there was no preparation for a war with Great Britain, but the participation of the UN was wanted, clearly somewhat naive. But it seems that the English do not accept that a third world country, without a battle plan without planning and destined for failure since there was no air superiority or naval access) has caused them so much damage (they can check the list of sunken and touched ships they would have ended up underwater if the old-fashioned bombs had worked) the reality is that, just like us, due to the inoperative junta couldn't win because we dont have plan or resoruses, looking at their losses in the war with a 3 world country England would not have had the slightest chance against the Warsaw pact if a war starts at this time in europe. It would be nice if we put aside the emotional factors to stop questioning the facts and focus on studying the l42 scope held by the veteran and knowing his history ...
I hope soon to have an answer from who was there (which is worth more than any conjecture of people who were not)

[Gil Boyd]

Fastback,

Lets not get into Politics over this scope issue its not worth it, the war is over and we are back to where we were.
If the guy has British issued Militaria from the war, good luck to him.
I would have done the same, afterall, I'm not the QM of that unit, but losses did occur in all spheres of kit

[DanL96a1]

Fastback very interesting bit of history and a rare find, it would be very helpful if it’s possible of course, to get a photograph of the front of the bracket (the flat side); which hopefully will have a rifle serial number. If you could obtain a clearer, picture of the scope and it’s serial number, that would be fantastic!

There are many here that might be able to find out about its history, which would add to the story. It would be fascinating if we could detect which Regiment it originally came from?

It was standard procedure to try to destroy the rifle and telescope, if captured or about to be over run. It looks as though it’s possible that this was attempted with the deflection drum being removed, and the bracket being the wrong way round. The damage to the Ocular lens is signs that it was (used as a hammer) before being ditched.