Lee Enfield Rifle
The Lee Enfield Rifle was designed at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield by JP Lee and was the main rifle of the British Army from 1895 to 1956.
It was also used by many British allies. It was quite often referred to as simply a .303 as this was the size of cartridge it fired from clips of five. The rifle from which it was developed was the Lee-Metford, which used a pattern of barrel rifling that quickly became obsolete with the introduction of cordite. The most common version of the rifle was the short magazine Lee Enfield, or SMLE, short referring to its length. At one time, around five million SMLE rifles were in use, and they still see service today as sporting guns.
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It was the main weapon of the British soldier from the reign of Queen Victoria, through both World Wars, to the late 1950's.
Jonathan Moore
The Lee Enfield rifle is why we speak English.
bill
This rifle served the UK and Commonwealth countries through two world wars and is still considered by many as the best bolt action battle rifle ever made. It was reliable, accurate and could sustain a rapid rate of fire.
The image of the British ?Tommy? with his trusty Lee Enfield rife still endures from the trenches of WWI, through the deserts of North Africa during WWII to the National Service newsreels of the 1950s.
Maybe not the most politically correct entry when looked at with 21st century eyes, but to my grandparents, and the millions of others who served, the Lee Enfiled Rifle truly deserves its iconic status.
Mark Rasmussen
