Tag Archives: no. 4 enfield

‘They don’t like it up ’em’

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80 years ago this month, a great period Kodachrome of one Private Alfred Campin, 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, while undergoing training in Britain, March 1944. Note his late model No. 4 Enfield, complete with wartime spike bayonet and what (may) be an early Mark III “Turtleshell” helmet (its hard to tell under the net). 

Photo by Tanner, A J (Lt), War Office official photographer, IWM TR 1596

The 6th Battalion DLI, was originally formed in 1908 from the old 2nd Volunteer Battalion DLI, as a Territorial Force battalion with headquarters in County Durham’s Bishop Auckland and eight companies in drill halls in Barnard Castle, Consett, Crook, Spennymoor, Stanhope, and Bishop Auckland. It marched off to war in 1914.

Reverting back to Territorial status interwar, the 6th DLI marched off again to France in 1940 and in North Africa (1941-43) before being shipped back to the Home Isles for reorganization and training for a return to France in June 1944. Pulled from the line in December 1944, the 6th was sent to Yorkshire to be used in training service corps soldiers as infantry then was placed in suspended animation in January 1946

Overall, the DLI continued in British Army service until 1968, when it was amalgamated into The Light Infantry, and then in 2007, when it was further amalgamated into The Rifles.

The Far-Reaching UN Forces in Korea and the Things they Carried

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With this month being the 70th anniversary of the rush by the Free World to help keep the fledgling Republic of Korea from forced incorporation by its Communist neighbor to the North, it should be pointed out that the UN forces that mustered to liberate Seoul and keep it so carried an interesting array of arms. Gathered ultimately from 21 countries you had a lot of WWII-era repeats such as No. 3 and No. 4 Enfields carried by Commonwealth troops as well as M1 Garands/Carbines toted by American and a host of Uncle Sam-supplied countries.

But there were most assuredly some oddball infantry weapons that were used as well.

One historical curiosity was the initial contingent supplied by the Royal Thai Army, who left for Korea in October 1950 wearing French Adrian-style “sun” helmets and armed with 8x52mm Type 66 Siamese Mausers that were actually versions of the bolt-action Japanese Type 38 Arisaka built before WWII at Japan’s Koishikawa arsenal.

Note their French-style helmets, U.S.-marked M36 packs, and Japanese Showa-period rifles. Ultimately, more than 10,000 Thai troops would serve in the Korean War alongside U.S. forces, fighting notably at the Battle of Pork Chop Hill. (Photo: UN News Archives)

More in my column at Guns.com. 

Rangers can still make their Enfields sing

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With their vintage .303 No. 4 Lee Enfield rifles being phased out, the part-time soldiers of the Canadian Rangers are standing tall at the Canadian Armed Forces Small Arms Concentration.

The military shooting competition, in which some 450 shooters from Canada’s Regular Force and Primary Reserve, Canadian Ranger Patrol Groups, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and teams from the United Kingdom and the United States are competing, was first organized back in 1868.

Held from September 5 to 17 at the Connaught Ranges and Primary Training Centre in Ottawa, it will be one of the final competitive shooting competitions in which the Canadian Rangers will use the Enfield, which is being replaced by the Sako/Colt Canada T3 CTR (Compact Tactical Rifle) rifle in .308.

While the Canucks plan to destroy surplus Enfields left after the conversion, those Rangers currently with them will be gifted their guns.

(Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

Note the Enfield competition belts to hold spare mags (Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

(Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

(Photos: Corporal Doug Burke/Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Center)

The below video from the Canadian Army, which shows some No. 4s at work at the Small Arms Concentration, details Sergeant Cyril Abbott of the 5th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. Abbott served 20 years active with the Black Watch and 2 RCR, and has spent the past 32 years with the Rangers, giving him an impressive 52 years with the Colours.