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Hey Froggy or anyone in the know, have a look at this and give me your opinion on the butt tag. http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNUSUAL-BRITISH ... 417857db24

I'm thinking Belgian Colonial time and the Belgians were recruiting locally and arming them with Enfields. Interestingly enough on doing a little more digging there are a fair few forums were owners of P14's are seeing these tags on their rifles as well, I didn't realise the P14 went that far and wide with the exception of the British Imperial Forces who used them to arm their local troops.

So what's it mean? I figure the CIE is Frog abbreviation for Company, but the SAU seems to have folks here stumped, me included.

Blu

Do a Google search with "sau-cie" including the quotation marks and hyphen. It will bring up the same type of question on several forums. General opinion is that it could be a rifle used in a colony ...

Salut ,
Cie is indeed the abraviation for Compagnie but I am afraif I can't help you beyond that

Polchraine wrote:Do a Google search with "sau-cie" including the quotation marks and hyphen. It will bring up the same type of question on several forums. General opinion is that it could be a rifle used in a colony ...

Yeah that's pretty much what I found as well.


Blu

froggy wrote:Salut ,
Cie is indeed the abraviation for Compagnie but I am afraif I can't help you beyond that

Bloody useless frog , but thanks for trying

Blu

Blu wrote: I'm thinking Belgian Colonial time and the Belgians were recruiting locally and arming them with Enfields.

Blu

I think you're on the right track regarding the Belgians. I'm pretty sure I read that to get Belgium Colonial forces (Force Publique or FP in the Congo) to attack German possessions in Africa during WWI, the UK had to fully equip and supply them.

Blu

Did some research and apparently "sau-cie" has also be found on Indonesian Air Force G3 rifles. SAU could stand for Senapan Angkatan Udara (Rifle for Air Force).

http://202.158.39.213/forum/tm.asp?m=21 ... ey=&#21244

I'm not 100% sure but I think the Dutch colonial forces in Indonesia where supplied with Enfields before the Japanese invasion.

Also, at the end of WWII British forces fought a very nasty counter insurgency campaign against the Indonesians prior to the Dutch going back the Indonesia. Returning Dutch forces (KNIL) could also have been issued with UK equipment.

Edit: From the Australian War Memorial - Dutch Mannlicher Model 1895 bolt action carbine.



The plate on the stock looks very similar, but is stamped 3.INF VII over 164.

I have seen that type of brass tab on other Enfields, if I recall correctly they were also Dutch

KNIL from 1948 with No4's http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl ... 01:F900837