Need help IDing this rifle
- Thread starter smartbomb
- Start date
Lee Enfield
British Number 1 Mark III rifle, calibre .303 British, early windage adjustable rear sight, made for Siam.
The King of Siam attended Sandhurst Military School in England and was well aware of the merits of the Lee Enfield rifle.
Take some pictures of the markings, including barrel markings and we will give you a serial number of the rifle.
The face is referred to as a "Smiling Tiger".
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British Number 1 Mark III rifle, calibre .303 British, early windage adjustable rear sight, made for Siam.
The King of Siam attended Sandhurst Military School in England and was well aware of the merits of the Lee Enfield rifle.
Take some pictures of the markings, including barrel markings and we will give you a serial number of the rifle.
The face is referred to as a "Smiling Tiger".
.
Wild Tiger Corps was a village-based militia scheme to provide local defence against bandits, warlords and other low forms of life. Ida was that what the local Militia couldn't handle, the regular Army would handle, but the proximity of the small local force made for a quicker response time.
There were 10,000 rifles in the batch, made in 1920/22 by the Birmingham Small Arms Company. All markings are in Siamese, but the serial numbers are duplicated in our numbers under the woodwork. The sale appears to have been quasi-official; many of these rifles exhibit Britsh-marked small parts in their guts, but the major parts (bolt, barrel, body) were all new and made especially for this small contract. BSA kept the entire plant tooled up to make this rifle from 1918 through to 1940 at their own expense; only orders they had were the 10,000 for Siam and 22,000 for Iraq.British Gummint wasn't interested until after Dunkirk, then they screamed out loud for a million rifles right now ..... which, of course, just can't be done right now. Time for planning a war is befoe it starts. King Rama VI knew this: these were his rifles, bought out of his own pocket. Siamese Army was using Mausers and Arisakas, both made in Japan.
For some reason, it seems quite a few of these were dumped here. They are regarded as rarities in most places. They were, after all, only about 1 rifle in 500 of actual production.
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There were 10,000 rifles in the batch, made in 1920/22 by the Birmingham Small Arms Company. All markings are in Siamese, but the serial numbers are duplicated in our numbers under the woodwork. The sale appears to have been quasi-official; many of these rifles exhibit Britsh-marked small parts in their guts, but the major parts (bolt, barrel, body) were all new and made especially for this small contract. BSA kept the entire plant tooled up to make this rifle from 1918 through to 1940 at their own expense; only orders they had were the 10,000 for Siam and 22,000 for Iraq.British Gummint wasn't interested until after Dunkirk, then they screamed out loud for a million rifles right now ..... which, of course, just can't be done right now. Time for planning a war is befoe it starts. King Rama VI knew this: these were his rifles, bought out of his own pocket. Siamese Army was using Mausers and Arisakas, both made in Japan.
For some reason, it seems quite a few of these were dumped here. They are regarded as rarities in most places. They were, after all, only about 1 rifle in 500 of actual production.
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