[LACHY.303.]

Hi all,

Anyone got an Enfield with a personal story? Such as this was carried by my Grandfather in North Africa etc etc.

Where British or Australian soldiers allowed to buy their service rifle after the war? Where they allowed OFFICALLY to bring back captured rifles etc.

Cheers all,
Lachy.

 

[cattle4]

Story

Well my Enfield is pretty standard, it's my bayonets that have the story. I have a german bayonet dated 1935 and a beligian one which is kind of a mystery. My grandfather served as a navy engineer during WWII but had a lot of friends in different branches of service. One of his friends was a non-combat trooper stationed on one of the Normandy beaches after the landings(Im not sure which one it was). He found both the german and belgian bayonets somewhere near or on the beach and kept them. After the war my grandfather convinced his friend to give them up and he had them until I was born and he decided to give them to me on a display board. So I figure the german soldier who carried the bayonets fought in Belgium and then got transfered to the Normandy beach where he died. So, not an enfield story but definitly an ingtriguing one.

 

[woftam]

One of our local club members shoots a '41 Lithgow that he states he bought off a Kokoda Veteran, who brought it back form WW2 and kept it.
I've also shot a WW1 german infantry rifle that was captured at the Somme by a British officer and remained in his family for years. When his family tried to donate it to the museum of his regiment they didn't want it, too much hassle. Fortunately it now resides with someone who appreciates its history.

 

[jrhead75]

I've got the Iron Cross and "Gott Mit Uns" belt buckle that my grandfather got from one of the 3 Germans he captured with an empty rifle in Belleau Wood.

My grandmother was all set to give me "that old Mauser" (broomhandle) that he'd brought home, but it turned out that he'd traded it away for Christmas presents to give my dad during the Depression.

 

[whiterider]

surprised look on a Jap's face

May have posted this story before but I dont think so....excuse my poor memory if I have. Back in the 1970's I was shooting at the Hornsby rifle club....Hornsby being north of Sydney. An older member of this club was Jack Hudson...a quiet cheerful guy short of stature and not a really good shot although he had plenty of stories to tell and always quick with a joke.

Anyway Jack got to know my interest in militaria and I knew he had been a WW2 soldier in new Guinea although like most of them he never spoke about it much. One night a group of us had a few drinks after the shoot, then went out for a Chinese meal as was our practice...more drinks then Jack invited us all back to his place 'to show us some stuff'..

Anyway Jack went to his wardrobe and came back with a Japanese army sword and two uniform epaulettes. Jack told us he had been a 'Territorial' and one of those sent to New Guinea when things got desperate. He went on to say that his unit had been 'dug in' expecting an attack by Jap infantry one morning. Anyway to use Jack's words 'We heard them first screaming and yelling in the jungle..then they came towards our positions, no support MG fire I suppose they thought they could just rush us...so we all fired and I saw this jap officer running towards us waving a sword...I lined up the sights of my Smelly on his chest fired and he went down. After it was over and they were all dead I walked up to him and saw that I had put a surprised look on his face'...

Jack took the sword and cut the epaulettes off the tunic of the dead jap officer. To actually see and handles these relics sure made me think about the grim realities of war. No false modesty, no theatrical heroics....just the simple story of a soldier who did his job and was fortunate enough to survive it all.

I'd like to be able to say I have the Jap sword and epaulettes but sadly Jack passed away not long after this and I guess they were disposed of by his relatives....I remember Jack and think about him every Anzac Day.

 

[GFL775]

I may have posted this on the old Boards, but what the heck.About 5 years ago an old woman walked into a local shop that doesn't really deal much in Milsurps,just plastic and LEO stuff.The guy behind the counter,while a hell of a nice guy, wouldn't know WWI from WWII and thinks that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor while Kennedy was President.The old lady was handing over her father's old rifle because she no longer wanted it around and was afraid someone would break in and steal it and shoot someone.She told the counter guy the story of the gun and based on the the story he relayed to me and his total ignorance of all things historical,I figured he didn't make it up.He jotted down a few things on a piece of paper and then read to me from his "notes".The story goes like this.The lady's father was a sailor on a US battleship that went over with other US Battleships to the British naval base towards the end of the Great War.Her father somehow gained possession of the rifle and brought it home where it sat in a closet or was used as a "spare" deer rifle when relatives showed up.The story could be so much BS, but on his notepad the guy had jotted down things like "1917" "Admiral Rodman" "Scapal Flow" and "USS Wyoming".Pretty interesting stuff considering his ignorance.Anyway,since the shop didn't really deal in "old junk " (that has changed considerably) and he was just doing the old lady a favor,he passed the rifle along to me for about twice what he had given her,which wasn't much.So I came to possess a beautiful,all matching(with original 1910 dated sling) CLLE Mk I with a Metford barrel.Which I figure is just what a reserve or home guard unit at Scapa Flow would be issued in 1917.Skennerton states that most of these went to naval units so that ties in also.Again, maybe BS,maybe not but it sure was interesting.