P14 and M1917 rifle history
As people are always asking about these rifles and because so little of their history is out there and easy to find, here is a bit of a history lesson on these great rifles -
Prior to the Great War, England had been experimenting with a new rifle design, and in fact a new calibre. The experimental rifles were furnished in .276 calibre (British spelling of course), and were designated the P-13 (“P” standing for “pattern;” “13” indicating the year of design).
In theory at any rate, this rifle was to eventually replace the British Lee Enfield Mark III calibre .303, then the standard British issue service rifle after painful experiences learned and suffered in the 2 Boer Wars against the superior long range accuracy and performance of the Boer's sharpshooters 7x57mm Mauser Model 1893 rifles.
The same thing had also happened to the Americans with their .30-40 Krags against the Spanish with their also 7x57mm Mauser M1893 rifles, which lead to the Americans copying the 7x57mm Mauser cartridge design and converting it to .30 calibre and copying the basic Mauser design to develop the Springfield rifle, but that is another story
On the outbreak of war, the P-13 was redesigned to handle the already in production and stockpiled .303 cartridge, and re-designated the P-14 or the Pattern 14 Enfield Rifle. And rather than tool up to produce the new rifle themselves, England contracted with Remington and Winchester to build the P-14 for them in the United States. Remington even formed another corporation, “Remington of Delaware”, to speed up the process.
The plant to produce these rifles for Remington’s subsidiary was located in Eddystone, Pennsylvania (and owned strangely enough by the Baldwin Locomotive Works). Eddystone, Remington and Winchester called these rifles (using British nomenclature) the P-14 Rifles. The equipment to produce the rifles was purchased by the prominent financier and banker, J.P. Morgan from Vickers in England who apparently was unable to fulfill their original contract with the British Government.
Morgan brokered the arms production deal with the United States Government, and had the rifle producing machinery delivered to the United States. J.P. Morgan had always had a reputation of being a war profiteer, and manufacturing millions of rifles for England fit in nicely with his plans to make a mint from the Kaiser’s efforts against the Allies.
When the United States entered the Great War in April of 1917, the British had just caught up with their own production (or at least decided that they had enough SMLEs to issue to their regular military) and were phasing out their contracts with Remington, Eddystone, and Winchester.
U.S. Ordnance also found itself in a position of needing a quick infusion of more battle rifles. Initially, they had planned on contracting with Winchester and Remington to tool up to produce the M1903, but this would be a somewhat time consuming process. It was decided early on, since the P-14 contract was being phased out, to simply redesign the P-14 to shoot the .30-’06 round, a faster method of getting a proven rifle in the hands of the troops.
During their production of the new American version of the Enfield, Remington, Eddystone, and Winchester employees used (quite understandably) the “P-17” designation to differentiate from the .303 British version they had been producing (here I’m talking a bout “in plant” usage, not official U.S. Ordnance Nomenclature! – actually it falls more properly under the heading of “slang” as opposed terminology, but it was “handy slang” considering the circumstances).
As set forth above, in 1914 England had contracted with Remington and Winchester to build rifles for them. To fulfill this contract, Remington formed another corporation, Remington of Delaware, and located their new plant at Eddystone, Pennsylvania. This installation was capable of producing 6000 rifles per day!
Remington Arms Company at llion, New York, themselves started turning out P-14s at the rate of 3000 per day. By April of 1917, Winchester was turning out 2000 P-14s per day in their New Haven, Connecticut plant.
By April 1917, British home production caught up with their demand just about the time that the United States went to war with Germany. Remington was stuck with two plants full of P-14 rifle machinery and a number of cancelled contracts. Winchester, of course, was in the same boat. The United States allowed as how they'd like Remington (and their subsidiary, Eddystone) and Winchester to start producing M1903s, but someone had a thought that would save them all sorts of money and time... and get rifles in the hands of our troops in a much more expeditious manner!
Remington pointed out that by changing the P-14 barrels and changing the bolt face, along with minor work on the magazine well, it would be no problem to convert the Pattern 14 Enfield to .30-'06 and start production almost immediately. Winchester also was up to producing .30-'06 Enfields, without having to retool to make M1903s. Thus was born the U.S. M1917 (Enfield) Rifle.
Undeniably, the M1917 was an extremely strong action, and the sights were (in many ways) superior to the Springfield as a combat sight.
A deal was cut and a serious quantity of M1917s started rolling off the production lines at Winchester by the middle of August of 1917.
Production was continued by Remington until December of 1918. Eddystone continued to build M1917s until January of 1919, and Winchester finally ceased production in April of 1919. J.P. Morgan no doubt breathed a sigh of relief!
The first Divisions to head for France were armed with the M1903 Rifle, including the Marine Brigade, but (as mentioned above) before hostilities ended between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of their troops were armed with the M1917.
Many of the Army Divisions were re-armed with the M1917 in France, but the Marines retained their prized M1903s throughout the war. By the end of the war, the United States had purchased a total of over 1,202,429 M1917s (a figure that is obviously much too low) Rifles, although some estimates go over 2,250,000. The M1917 Rifle had cost the United States Government a total of $26 apiece.
Total Rifle Production at end of World War 1 (all manufacturers) = 2,202,429 (but production as of end of Nov 1918 not mentioned) - as per Hatcher’s Notebook!
