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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

smle regimental disc markings


jimmy9fingers1

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Hi,

 

Also the rifle was marked on the brass stock disc, it was marked to a territorial regiment with a 3 digit number underneath, however it was not unit marked anywhere else on the rifle, it was however Naval marked. Should there have been a regiment mark elsewhere, i.e the wrist or receiver. Or did they only mark them to the disc. If so it looks like it started life in the Navy then went on serve with a territorial unit, which seems a little unlikely as the gun was dated 1916. I did understand that earlier in the war the Navy had smle's that they surrendered to the army.   

 

Apologies if I'm wrong, I'm still learning

    

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Stock marking discs can be changed in the time that it takes to unscrew the 1cm brass screw so they are unreliable indicators as to the rifle's heritage - unless there is other corroborating evidence or a known history (which is very uncommon). There is also a brisk trade in discs (real and repro) on eBay and other auction/militaria sites.

As a result it's a bit hard to speculate about the potential life of the rifle based on these.

 

The Navy did indeed send SMLEs to the Army (they were replaced by Ross rifles and a number of other second line weapons) but this was early in the war and I don't think there were large scale transfers later (although individual weapons may have cycled through reclamation/reissue processes)

 

By 1916 unit marking of rifles had largely been phased out and indeed omission of the unit marking disc was one of the wartime manufacturing simplifications permitted.

Generally speaking SMLEs in British Service were only marked on the disc (earlier MLEs were marked on the tang of the butt-plate). Australian owned/used rifles were sometimes stamped with their state or military district on the receiver (eg NSW or 3 MD etc) Canadian rifles (Ross etc) sometimes have unit marks stamped into the side of the butt.

 

I assume the Naval mark to which you refer is an N stamped on the left side of the wrist below the safety? Are there any there any other markings there (ie date stamps that might indicate inter-war usage?)

 

The practice of marking discs was restarted in the inter war period so again it makes it difficult to ascertain whether the rifle went from Naval use to TF use or vice versa (even if we assume the disc is original to the rifle). If there is a N stamp then about all that can be said with certainty is it passed through the Naval armoury at some point.

 

Chris

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Thanks Chris,

 

I did wonder if the brass stock disc had been added at a later date, it doesn't surprise me that the discs can get added by collectors, dealers etc. and that there's a trade in such items. I didn't know that reg. discs were largely phased out by 1916 either. It's a shame unit marked rifles aren't marked on the action or receiver also.    

 

The N for Naval is on the left side of the wrist. I have a Naval marked NO1 *** SMLE myself, made in 1907.

 

Couldn't see any re-issue dates on the Unit marked SMLE, just a guess but I'm thinking this SMLE could have spent most of it's life in the Navy.

 

I'm presuming brass Unit marked disc's weren't used in WW2?

 

Jim    

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