DBWI No Pattern 13 Enfield Rifle.

By the outbreak of the 2nd War of Austrian Succession in August 1914 The British Home Army and Territorial Force had replaced their controversial Lee Enfield Rifles with the new Pattern 13 rifles. This rifle did not allow the same fast rate of fire as the Lee Enfields or hold the same 10 round capacity magazine (It is claimed that 1 man fired 38 aimed rounds in 1 minute).

When the B.E.F engaged the German army at Mons they were unable to hold their possition for long despite inflicting large casualties on the Germans. Later on the Germans caught and over ran 1 of the B.E.F's 2 Corps and severed the remaining Corps link with the French army. The remnants of the BEF were then driven to the Pas de Calais and pinned in the coastal pocket, playing very little part in the Western Front Campaign until just before the end of the war in early 1917. Could things have been diferent had they kept the old SMLE and what difference would Britain having a larger role in the fighting on the Western Front have on the war as a whole?
 
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The Lee-Enfield jammed if you looked at it funny, was pitifully easy to put back together wrong (and exploded if you pulled the trigger with a chambered round when you did so) after field stripping it, and couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at it's supposed combat ranges.

It would have been like issuing them trapdoor-converted versions of old "Brown Bess." Even longbows would have been better.
 
The Lee-Enfield jammed if you looked at it funny, was pitifully easy to put back together wrong (and exploded if you pulled the trigger with a chambered round when you did so) after field stripping it, and couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at it's supposed combat ranges.

It would have been like issuing them trapdoor-converted versions of old "Brown Bess." Even longbows would have been better.

No; your confusing the Lee-Enfield with a Ross-Enfield that jammed easily and could be put back together wrong. The bolt would not lock and drove the bolt into the firers face; not "explode". Mind you they did look similar so when the bribes flew the politicians didn't really know which rifle they were supporting.
 
The Lee-Enfield jammed if you looked at it funny, was pitifully easy to put back together wrong (and exploded if you pulled the trigger with a chambered round when you did so) after field stripping it, and couldn't hit the broadside of a barn at it's supposed combat ranges.

It would have been like issuing them trapdoor-converted versions of old "Brown Bess." Even longbows would have been better.

This is a myth, as discussed above. True tales of the Ross's terrible quality were combined with downright lies to discredit the SMLE (or 'Smelly' as it was nicknamed for a short time). It was a case of bribery and disgustingly foul play by the opponents of higher expenditure for a more modern weapon. The P13, while competently made, was built, as ever, 'with the last war in mind' - the Boer War. The SMLE's higher capacity, faster rate of fire and easy means of drilling mean that, had it been used instead of the P13, substantially greater casualties could have been inflicted on the Germans.

Of course, one must never turn tactical butterflies into strategic ones. It's unlikely anything other than a complete change of mindset and leadership in anyone above the rank of Major in the BEF could have held the tide in that crucial early stage, much less won the war for the Entente.
 
This is a myth, as discussed above. True tales of the Ross's terrible quality were combined with downright lies to discredit the SMLE (or 'Smelly' as it was nicknamed for a short time). It was a case of bribery and disgustingly foul play by the opponents of higher expenditure for a more modern weapon. The P13, while competently made, was built, as ever, 'with the last war in mind' - the Boer War. The SMLE's higher capacity, faster rate of fire and easy means of drilling mean that, had it been used instead of the P13, substantially greater casualties could have been inflicted on the Germans.

Of course, one must never turn tactical butterflies into strategic ones. It's unlikely anything other than a complete change of mindset and leadership in anyone above the rank of Major in the BEF could have held the tide in that crucial early stage, much less won the war for the Entente.

Things could have gone better with the old rifle, as one old soldier said in an interview in 1964 "We knocked down two Germans for every man we lost in Belgium. Trouble was there was three of them for every one of us". That doesn't excuse French's sheer bloody stupidity of course. Mind you having Kitchener catch a Boers bullet in South Africa might have made it possible to improve things before it was too late.
 
The Pattern 13 rifle had nothing wrong with it, the 1898 Mauser that it was copied from didn't suffer the same problems. The issue was the cartridge, the .276 Enfield. Heavy recoil, muzzle flash and barrel overheating were serious issues even before the war. That powerful a cartridge might have made sense in the wide open spaces of South Africa but in the trenches of Northern France it was a hindrance.
 
The Pattern 13 rifle had nothing wrong with it, the 1898 Mauser that it was copied from didn't suffer the same problems. The issue was the cartridge, the .276 Enfield. Heavy recoil, muzzle flash and barrel overheating were serious issues even before the war. That powerful a cartridge might have made sense in the wide open spaces of South Africa but in the trenches of Northern France it was a hindrance.
Quite right - it was the cartridge that was the problem. When the WD tried converting the Vickers MGs to that round, it became very apparent indeed!
 
The one part of the P13's design which was unforgivable was the magazine capacity. Since 1888 with the introduction of the Magazine Lee Metford the British Army's rifles held first 8 rounds and latter ten yet for some reason it was decided to reduce this to five rounds in the P13. The rifle was more accurate at long range that the old SMLE and eventually an excellent sniper rifle but it was long, heavy and unwieldy, leading to many otherwise excellent recruits been turned away simply because it was felt that they were too small to use the standard rifle.

The infantry hated it and there were numerous cases of men serving alongside Australian, Indian and New Zealand troops abandoning their own rifles and picking up the weapons of the dead Empire troops. One man was even executed for throwing away his rifle during an attack. The Courts Martial was unimpressed by his claim that it had jammed and he began using an SMLE obtained from a dead Australian soldier. When the Courts Martial records were released under the Freedom of Information Act it was found that the Court was basically ordered to convict Sgt Maj Dickenson of the Green Howards by the War Office. They wanted to make an example of him, and silence the Infanty's demands to be issued with the old Lee Enfields.
 
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