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My Uncle who was evacuated from Dunkirk (only to return in 1944) tells me that on arrival back in England, all personnel were relieved of all of their rifles, Bren guns and pistols at the point of disembarkation (Dover). On returning to depot his unit was re-equiped with P14s and Lewis guns. He was later re-issued SMLE prior to embarkation to North Africa. On leaving North Africa (1943) he was relieved of his SMLE and issued a Sten Gun on arrival at Depot in England. He served in the Royal Signals from 1936 to 1947 as a regular soldier.

huntervixen wrote:I have noticed that most WW1 Australian and New Zealand issue SMLE's (of UK manufacture) tend to be Enfield and 1917 dated.

I had counted 5 (including my pride and joy NZ issue example) and was speaking to chap yesterday whose Aussie issue rifle is also Enfield and 1917 dated.

Of these, nearly all are Lithgow arsenal WW2 rebuilds, re-barreled and re-stocked with light coachwood stocks and the typical Australian foresight protector mod.

I would guess a large Enfield production lot was turned over to our Antipodean cousins in 1917??

So has anyone else got or seen one that bucks the trend, is six in a row just a coincidence very interested to know.

My No 1 MK III has the Australian D stamp and Is a BSA manufacture dated 1917. Indecently this rifle was suppose to be a Lithgow though upon arrival I had a 1917 BSA arrive well of course I did not complain.

huntervixen wrote:I wonder how many Home Guard weapons ended up "getting lost" during the War, quite a few I'll wager, I remember one of the firearms amnesty's back in the 80's, lots of P14's handed in and the odd 1928A1, curious, now where did they come from!

This was how my Long Lee came to me. My 1902 LSA MK1* was built in 1902, shipped to South Africa, returned to England around the start of WW1, drill purposed and used for training, Restored to active condition in 1940 and issued to derbyshire home guard, Retained by the bloke who was issued with it and after the war it was kept in a cupboard and handed into a derbyshire RFD by the son of the home guardsman a few years ago, then purchased by me.

I think we are going way off topic now chaps, but who cares, I find the whole Dunkirk aftermath period a fascinating and much neglected area of research, many thanks to Rearlugs for shedding some light on the detail.

A 1902 LSA MK1*, very nice indeed Martin, how does she shoot, wonderful to own a rifle with such a great backstory!

On the subject of the Home Guard, I think history (and Dads Army) have skewed public perception of the HG, when you consider it was largely made up of seasoned WW1 veterans in their 40's 50's and 60's who knew a thing or two about fighting and would have, I'm sure, have given a bloody good account of themselves had the worst happened.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for historians) My Mk1* has its original mk1 rear sight, so it shoots ok but just 5 Foot to the right (long story, but some Long lees were badly sighted at the factory). I was using privi ammo the last time i shot it so the sight had to be raised to 500 yards just to get on target at 100 yards, i now have some 215 grain rounds loaded so i will have a go with them. But i mainly use this rifle for Boer war and early WW1 battle reenactment. I remember once at a battle reenactment event the order came through to fix our p-1888 bayonets and charge the boer reenactors as per the script. There was one boer chap who decided to stand his ground and face me, but he was so taken aback by the sight and sound of the british Bayonet charge he dropped his rifle and promptly fell into a nearby rose bush. Once we got him out he was ok.

Sorry everyone for going a bit off topic but Enfields have so much history behind them it is somtimes difficult to contain it to one area.