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Would it make any different for the British army in WW2 to have semi-automatic infantry rifles instead of the SMLE and its derivatives? I've read that the SMLE can be fired very quickly by a trained soldier.

IOTL - 1940 Dieudonne Saive, design chief at Fabrique Nationale, fled to England from Belgium. He brought with him the design for the FN-49 rifle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Model_1949 Test models were built at Enfield but never adopted.



POD - troops returning from Dunkirk need re-arming. The FN rifle is tested, changed from 8mm Mauser rimless to .303BR rimfire, and adopted for production alongside the SMLE #4.
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