Experience during the Great War showed that the Mk.III and Mk.III* were able to cope with the worst of what the battlefields had to offer. In mud, rain and general misery of the Western Front a trained soldier was able to produce over fifteen aimed shots a minute, with experts able to squeeze off many more. A 432mm long 'sword' type bayonet was issued with every rifle, the bayonet itself a very impressive stabbing and cutting device, which must have looked equally imposing when fitted on the Lee-Enfield, however, when it was sheathed and suspended from a webbing belt, it could have been really awkward (the author had a rather funny experience with this, being expected to jump out of a Jeep while having the bayonet jammed between the seat and the back of the vehicle?s rear bench).

The only shortcoming of the S.M.L.E.'s (both No.1 Mk.III & Mk.III*) was the accuracy, which never reached a level comparable to some of its counterparts from enemy arsenals, however, the rifle was an excellent all-round service rifle. Sniper duties were later partly taken over by the P14 (or No.3 Mk.I) design, produced in the U.S. (Winchester and Remington factories) due to the lack of production facilities in Britain, but the weapon never became widespread as in the meantime, production difficulties in Britain gradually subsided.

The No.1 Mk.III* rifles were produced at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock (to the north of London), where part of their name originated, but also at a number of other factories at Sparkbrook, Birmingham and L.S.A. at Old Ford, London. By the end of the Great War, a remarkable total of 3,854,106 rifles had been produced by all manufacturers. The post-WWI situation did not promise any further innovations based on service experience on the battlefields as budgets were being cut down drastically ? there was a series of trial rifles resulting later in major production changes and a new No.4 Mk.1 design, but we will discuss this later on.
A renewed interest in the weapon came during the 1930's, when the British Empire, despite the Appeasement policy, had to consider the possibility of a new world war. New production line was established at the B.S.A. Small Heath facility. The Mk.III and Mk.III* designs were adopted by the armies of Australia and India, who introduced the rifle to local production facilities, such as Lithgow, NSW, in Australia, or the Rifle Factory located at Ishapore, India, where the rifles continued to be manufactured until late 1950's, long after the original British weapon phased out of production. Nearly 1,500,000 rifles were produced at the two facilities.

The numbers definitely do appear satisfying, however, the Dunkirk evacuation inflicted heavy losses on the stocks of, besides other weapons and equipment, the Lee-Enfield rifles ? 300,000 were lost including large stocks of .303 ammunition. Of course, the Wehrmacht readily accepted the weapon as the 7.7mm Gewehr 281(e).

In 1941, a new Lee-Enfield design was introduced, a continuation of improvements based on service experience and production line problems. No.4 Mk.1 was basically a complete redesign commencing as early as 1924 with a series of trial rifles introducing numerous modifications and productions shortcuts including a strengthened bolt action and receiver, a heavier barrel protruding forwards from the hand-guard or new location of the backsights over the receiver.

The improvement was remarkable, the new design brought a simplified manufacturing process, accuracy was enhanced and a new, more simple design of a bayonet in the form of a cruciform 'dagger' blade and later a simple spike was introduced. Muzzle velocity increased from 634 metres per second (No.1 Mk.III*) to 751 metres per second, weight grew from 3.93kgs to 4.14kgs, while length decreased by 3mm to 1.33m. Production lines were set up at Royal Ordnance Factories at Fazakerley off Liverpool, Maltby near Sheffield and the B.S.A. factory at Shirley. At Fazakerley, No.4 Mk.1 continued to be produced up till 1956. Due to a lack of sufficient production facilities in Britain, a large portion of No.4 Mk.1 rifles were produced by Savage Arms Corporation at Chicopee Falls, MA, U.S.A., while others were produced in Canada by Small Arms Ltd. at Long Branch, Ontario. Part of the Canadian output went to the Canadian Army, however, most of the 1,250,000 rifles manufactured at these two facilities went to Britain and the Commonwealth. Rifles produced in the U.S.A. and Canada were further simplified by production shortcuts again introduced to speed up the manufacturing process ? in No.4 Mk.1*, precision leaf sights were replaced by simple stamped battle-sight, the rifling was cut down to two grooves instead of six. Despite the original mockery at these improvements, none of these shortcuts hampered the performance of the weapon.

It took very long before any of these weapons could be issued to front-line troops. In late 1942, two years after the factories manufactured the first production examples, the rifles were issued to airborne troops. Within 3 years, the No.4 Mk.1 and Mk.1* were the mainstay of the British Army, while the Australian and Indian armies never adopted the new design, sticking with what their own well-established production lines could offer.

The increased accuracy of No.4 brought the possibility of using the weapon as a sniper rifle. These rifles, coming from production lines both in Britain and the U.S. were designated as No.4 Mk.1(T) and issued together with a No.32 telescopic sight (or equivalent) and a cheek piece. The sights and the rifles were carefully paired by specialists, making the rifle a very lethal weapon, which remained in service for many years after the Second World War.

Also, both No.1 and No.4 rifles could be fitted with cup dischargers for projecting No.36 Mills high-explosive grenades.

There were other variants continuing in the line of development of the Lee-Enfield rifles, however, none of these reached the importance of the versions mentioned above. There was the Jungly No.5, a peculiar looking rifle with reduced weight issued as the Jungle Carbine; Australia tried to produced a short carbine known as No.6, but this never passed beyond a trial stage, Canada worked on a shortened No.4 but not more than 50 were made.

Lee-Enfield rifles had a long life following the two world wars. Indian Army converted some 250,000 .303 S.M.L.E. rifles to the 7.62mm N.A.T.O. cartridge ? some of these examples remain in service until today with police, border guards or internal security forces. The last of the Lee-Enfield rifles based on the No.4 design left the service of the British Army as the 7.62mm L42A1 sniper rifle, ending over a century of service of these reliable and favoured weapons with the British forces.
A No. 1 Mk. III rifle in a drawing published in the soldier's English-Czech dictionary published by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile for the troops.
Lee-Enfield Rifles
Jan Hyrman

There are only few people who know something about the British weapons of the Second World War would have to guess which rifle the British Army used during the six-year conflict. The answer would also be valid for the armed forces of all other British territories worldwide ? the .303 Lee-Enfield rifle, which was the standard issue weapon for all these armies by the time WWII started in Europe.

Based on the Lee-Metford design of 1880's, the Lee-Enfields were an innovation entering the service with the British Army as Magazine Lee-Enfield in 1895. Both designs fired a rimmed .303/7.7mm cartridge, the Lee-Enfields, however, had a new system of rifling. The ammunition came in different shapes, ranging from the ordinary anti-personnel Ball cartridges to pointed, streamlined bullets or incendiary, tracer and armour-piercing ammunition.
A photo of a No. 1 Mk. III rifle showing a detail of the clip before it is jammed into place.
The overall length of the Magazine Lee-Enfield rifles was 1.25m, which proved way too long and awkward already during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), when these rifles were already in production for the British Army. Based on requirements by cavalry, combat engineers and artillery units, a shorter, more handy design was tested in 1902 ? this rifle, shorter by 12cm, later that year accepted for service as the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk.1 (S.M.L.E.), was to become a replacement of Magazine Lee-Enfields as a weapon acceptable for all services, including the cavalry, the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines. Other innovations were introduced as a result of field experience during the South African campaign, simplifying rapid loading of the five-round magazine and wooden hand-guards now completely concealing the barrel.

The S.M.L.E. Mk.III appeared in 1907 (in 1926, in an attempt to bring order into the weapon designation practice, it was re-designated as No.1 Mk.III), following gradual introduction of further improvements requested by the services. This handy, reliable, smoothly-operating and well-functioning weapon should be considered as a basis for rifles, which the British Army and its Commonwealth counterparts used for more than half a century. Other adjustments were gradually being introduced once a feature became redundant due to new tactical conditions or when the factories needed to cut down the complicated production process. Long-range aiming and a so-called cut-off giving the soldier a possibility to hand-load single rounds through a sliding closure without having to use the cartridges loaded in the magazine were finally done away with in 1915 when the No.1 Mk.III* was introduced, becoming the most numerous of all the S.M.L.E. rifles.
A No. 1 Mk. III rifle with a weather-proof cover for the lock and the 432mm long 'sword' type bayonet..