During World War Two, the Canadian military adopted the No4 MkI (T) Enfield as their standard sniper’s rifle, and placed an order for 441 of them from the Long Branch arsenal. However, after receiving just 91, they agreed (under some pressure) to relinquish the retainer of their order to the British military, which claimed a greater need. In order to make up the remaining 350 sniper rifles necessary to equip the newly-expanded Canadian army, they send a delegation down to the US to investigate alternative scope options (as it was the No32 scope production that was the limited factor for sniper rifle production).
The conclusion in the US was that the Weaver 330 and Lyman Alaskan were the two options available in current production that suited military needs (not surprisingly, these were the scopes also identified and used by the US military). The Canadian chose the Lyman Alaskan as the best, and placed an order for 350 of them in March 1944 (the decision was made in December 1943, but it took several months for the bureaucracy to actually place the official order). The scopes were delivered in May 1944, and Small Arms Limited proceeded to assemble 350 rifles using the scopes along with a scope base of their own design, serialized in a batch from 74L0001 through 74L0350 (the scopes were numbers were 4340S through 4690S). They were issued to the Army too late for combat use in World War Two, but they were used in the Korean War.
Some of the rifles were also supplied to Belgium and the Netherlands as military aid in the 1950s. They were used there until the adoption of 7.62mm NATO, at which point they all left service. Many were scrapped, but some were surplussed and survive in collectors’ hand today.
Stop using AI to compose your writing. It’s transparent and it does a lousy job.
M
I do not use any AI for any of my writing work. The only place use it at all is an AI tool that clips shorts video from my full length ones (it does a mediocre job and I don’t care).
In your videos, Ian, you talk a lot like the A.I. generated copy…my gods! You’re just a ‘bot!
Ian has been reading the same format of script the same way for a decade. Where ya’ been?
I’ve been watching his videos for so long that when I read his writing I “hear” it in his voice.
What a absolutly trifling and absurd comment. You come across as a shrill little man with delusions of adequacy.
Mack, that was funny.
If you had a modicum of clue, you could have dumped it into gptzero and pangram and determined otherwise.
https://www.pangram.com/history/ed726271-cf82-49d2-b5c6-d9994ea94648
I hear that in Ian’s voice when read.
Like I’ve done for all his other work for nearly 20 odd years now.
Allez! Le Jésus de arme à feu!
Leave it to bureaucrats to screw around and get the weapon to the troops when the war is over. SAD
Could be a happy indication the weapon was not needed. The Canadians were on the winning side after all.
Canada produced equipment to UK specifications. It was important for standardization and integration. Where required adjustments and economies were approved, such as zinc alloy, brass or steel No.4 butt plates, or where the bolt head release is located. Changes that made no difference to the average soldier. The No.4 (T) rifles made by Long Branch were shipped on contract to UK. As Ian mentioned REL simply could not deliver enough No.32 scopes that passed inspection, hence the temporary substitution of Trade Pattern scopes. And yes, Long Branch sniper rifles did see wartime service. Some even survived into the L42A1 program.
The production issues at Long Branch and REL were not caused by the production office. Canada had an estimated population of 11.2-mil in 1939 and by 1945 10% of them had joined the military. There was a small industrial base spread thinly across a large landmass. Coming out of the Depression, industry could support the national economy but no one could predict just how big the wartime demand for ‘munitions’ would grow. The REL plants didn’t have long lists of skilled employees to deploy and redeploy making the long list of advanced products on its order book.
Nice work Ian.