Odds are, if you speak gun, you’ve come across an Enfield rifle at least once in your life. With that being said, you have probably never come across a full-auto Enfield unless you wore a uniform in 1940s. Let’s have a look.
The Lee-Metford and later the Short-Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) in a multitude of variants was the standard British military rifle for nearly 70-years. It served through two World Wars and dozens of smaller conflicts on half as many continents. When World War II erupted in 1939, her Commonwealth allies including New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa joined Britain. Rapid and extensive mobilization saw these Allies ship most of their troops and arms to Europe and North Africa by 1940 to fight the Germans and Italians. Then, in December 1941, the Empire of Japan entered the war.
With the standard light machineguns of the Commonwealth armies, the Bren gun and Lewis rifle, available in few numbers, there was an emergency need for .303-caliber automatics. Interestingly enough, two different inventors, continents apart, came to the same conclusion at roughly the same time: convert the Enfield to full auto.
read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
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About laststandonzombieisland
Let me introduce myself. I am a bit of a conflict junkie. I am fascinated by war and warfare, assassination, personal protection and weaponry ranging from spud guns and flame throwers to thermonuclear bombs and soviet-trained Ebola monkeys. In short, if it’s violent or a tool to create violence it is kind of my thing.
I have written a few hundred articles on the dry encyclopedia side for such websites as History Times, Firearms Talk.com, GUNS.com, Suite 101 (where I am the contracted Feature Writer for Military History) and Combat Forums; as well as for print publications like England Expects, and Strike First Strike Fast. Several magazines such as Sea Classics, Military Historian and Collector, Mississippi Sportsman and Warship International have carried my pieces. Additionally I am on staff as a naval consultant and writer for Eye Spy Intelligence Magazine.
Currently I am working on several book projects, including a section in the upcoming Mississippi Encyclopedia (to be published by Ole Miss this summer), an alternative history novel about the US-German War of 1916, and a biography of Bennett Doty. My first novel, about the coming zombie apocalypse was released this Spring by Necro Publications and can be found at Amazon.com.
In my day job I am a contractor for the US federal government in what could best be described as the ‘Force Protection’ field. In this I am a certified Firearms, and less-than-lethal combat instructor.
