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Lee-Enfield rifle series
The Lee-Enfield is a series of bolt-action rifles and carbines that were designed by Scottish-born gun designer James Paris Lee (1831-1904) and the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock, Great Britain; to replace the Lee-Metford series bolt-action rifles and carbines (a series of bolt-action rifles and carbines that were designed by James Paris Lee and William Ellis Metford) when the British armed forces adopted smokeless gun powder in the late 19th century. The Lee-Enfield series of bolt-action rifles and carbines saw extensive service with the armed forces of Great Britain and the nations, colonies, and dominion states of the British Empire/British Commonwealth from 1895, until the rifles were replaced from frontline military service in 1957 by the British version of the FN FAL rifle, the L1A1 Self Loading Rifle.
Specifications
- Weight: ~4 kg (8.8 lb) depending on wood density
- Length: 1,130 mm (44.5 in)
- Barrel length: 635 mm (25 in)
- Cartridge: .303 Mk VII SAA Ball
- Action: Bolt-action
- Muzzle velocity: 744 m/s (2,441 ft/s)
- Effective range: 550 yards (503 m)[2]
- Maximum range: 2,000 yd (1,829 m)
- Feed system: 10-round magazine, loaded with 5-round charger clips
- Sights: Sliding ramp rear sights, Fixed-post front sights, "Dial" long-range volley sights (deleted on MkIII* and later); Telescopic sights on Sniper models
- Rate of fire: between 15 to 30 rounds/minute
The Lee-Enfield rifle and variants can be seen in the following movies and video games:
Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle
This includes all examples of the SMLE or Lee Enfield Bolt action rifle from it's introduction to the last widely-distributed version.
Film
- Jeroen Krabbé as Guus LeJeune in Soldier of Orange (1977)
- English and Dutch soldiers in Soldier of Orange (1977) - both No.1 Mk.III as well as No.4 Mk.I
- Robert Newton as Pvt. Tom Bartlett in Desert Rats, The (1953)
- Australian soldiers in Desert Rats, The (1953)
- German soldiers in Desert Rats, The (1953)
- French resistance member in Charlotte Gray (2001)
- Paul Gross as Sgt Michael Dunne in Passchendaele (2009)
- Michael Greyeyes as Pte Highway in Passchendaele (2009)
- Joe Dinicol as Pte David Mann in Passchendaele (2009)
- Canadian soldiers in Passchendaele (2009)
- Canadian infantrymen in Legends of the Fall (1994)
- British infantrymen in Out of Africa (1986)
- British infantrymen in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
- Hans Matheson as Pvt. Hawkstone in Deathwatch (2002)
- Exterminators in Zardoz (1974)
- Australian and British soldiers in Beneath Hill 60 (2010)
- British soldiers in The Trench (1999)
- British soldiers in Atonement (2007)
- No Blade Of Grass (1970)
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
- Czech troops in Tobruk (2008)
- Daniel Radcliffe as Lieutenant Jack Kipling in My Boy Jack (2007)
- Australian soldiers in Kokoda
- Edward Woodward as Harry 'Breaker' Morant in Breaker Morant (1980)
- Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Lt. George Ramsdale Witton in Breaker Morant (1980)
- Bryan Brown as Lt. Peter Handcock in Breaker Morant (1980)
- Richard Dormer as Corporal John O'Leary in My Boy Jack (2007)
- Shiite refugee in Three Kings
- Kamal Khan's guards in Octopussy
- Afghan Mujahideen in The Beast of War
- Holstered in a motorbike sidecar in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
- Lee Enfield Mk I filling in for Martini-Henrys due to a shortage of .455 blanks in Zulu (1964)
- Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee in Crocodile Dundee
- British troops in A Bridge Too Far
- British troops in The Longest Day (1963)
- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns
- British and IRA forces in Michael Collins
- An IRA member in Bloody Sunday (2001)
- British Army soldiers in The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
- British and Indian Army soldiers in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Oceanian soldiers in 1984
- Kevin Eldon as Sgt. Tony Fisher in Hot Fuzz
- British soldiers and public school students in If...
- Transformers (2007)
- Carl Weathers as Sundog/George Washington Lincoln Brown in Death Hunt
- Too Late the Hero (1970)
- Prof. Nathan Phipps (William Langlois) in Curse of the Komodo )
- Hell's Angels (1930)
- Greek soldier in The Hunters (1958)
- Sahara (1943)
- British soldiers in All The King Men (1999)
- Royal Navy sailors in Dr. No
- Three to Go - Michael (1969)
- Rebels and British and Indian soldiers in Northwest Frontier (1959)
- British soldiers in The Giant Behemoth (1959)
- US soldiers in The Lost Battalion (2001) (No.4 MkI.)
- SPECTRE agents in From Russia with Love, fitted with Energa rifle grenades (1963)
- Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I, Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I(T) and SMLE with the attached grenade discharger cup in Ipcress File, The (1965).
- British and Australian soldiers in Lighthorsemen, The (1987)
Television
- Anzacs (1985)
- Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman(In Lex's mansion on display behind glass)
- Buffer and Kate in Sea Patrol
- Australian soldiers in Kokoda (2010)
- Resistance fighters in Falling Skies (2011)
- A pair of No.1 Mk.III* rifles can be seen on the wall of the SAS bar in Ultimate Force
Video Games
- British Army soldiers in Medal of Honor: Frontline (non-playable)
- Medal of Honor: Heroes (as the "Enfield Rifle")
- Silent Storm (standard and sniper versions)
- Eternal Darkness (2001)
- World War II Online: Battleground Europe (Lee Enfield Rifle No.4 MK I, Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.I(T))
Animation
Enfield Enforcer/L42A1 sniper rifle
Film
- Brad Pitt as Tom Bishop in Spy Game.
- Mumbai police officers in Shootout at Lokhandwala
- British Army soldier in Doomsday (with thumbhole stock and Harris bipod)
Video Games
- Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (appears only in Breakthrough expansion pack)
Birmingham Small Arms Lee-Speed Sporter
The Lee-Speed was popular with British officers and other hunters who wanted a fine rifle, but couldn't afford the expensive double barrel rifles made by Purdy, Holland & Holland and other famous, and expensive, British gun makers. The Lee-Speed was popular because it fired the easily obtainable British service round (.303 British), though it was also manufactured in other calibers. The "Lee - Speed" had the same action as the Lee-Enfield bolt action rifle, which allowed many British hunters and colonists in Africa to obtain spare parts and ammunition from British Army units based in Britain's African colonies during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Film
- Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham in King Kong (1933)
- Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen in Out of Africa (1986)
- Val Kilmer as Col. John Patterson in The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
- Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell in The Mummy Returns (2001)
- Gavin Hood as Bruce McNabb in King Solomon's Mines (2004)
- Benicio del Toro as Lawrence Talbot in The Wolfman (2010)
Additional Information
Background & Usage
Despite being removed from frontline service in 1957, the Lee-Enfield saw extensive use as a secondary infantry rifle with reserve forces as well as use as a sniper rifle by the British military. In 2008, nations like India, Pakistan, Nepal and Canada still use the Lee-Enfield rifle as a standard issue rifle to police forces and to reserve military units. In the case of Canada, the Canadian Rangers are still using the Lee-Enfield No.4 rifle as their standard-issue rifle. In the case of India and Pakistan, the Lee-Enfield is used by the police forces of both nations with the Indians utilizing a 7.62mm NATO version of the No.1 MkIII* rifle called the Indian 2A/2A1 rifle. Australia still manufacture/convert Lee-Enfield's as hunting/plinking weapons in a range of calibres from 7.62mm NATO and the Soviet 7.62x39mm M43 with Australian International Arms (AIA) manufacturing modern versions of the Lee-Enfield rifle for the civilian firearms market.
The Lee-Enfield rifle saw extensive use in many military conflicts from the late 19th century to the present day (easily outstripping the length of service the Mosin-Nagant rifle has achieved) with Lee-Enfields being used in conflicts like the Second Boer War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Suez Canal Crisis, and the Mau Mau Uprising. The Lee-Enfield was also extensively used by the Mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s. The Lee-Enfield has also seen extensive use in the hands of insurgents and warring factions recently in nations like Nepal (where both Nepalese Government forces and Maoist guerrillas used the Lee-Enfield rifle), Afghanistan, Iraq, India (with both the Indian government forces and the Naxalite Maoist rebels being seen armed with SMLEs and various firearms) and the Solomon Islands (where many of the warring factions in the Solomon Islands were seen armed with Lee-Enfield No.4 rifles stolen from military and police armories during the civil unrest that occurred on the islands during the late 1990s/early 2000s).
Unlike Mauser-derived bolt-action rifles (with their 5 round internal magazines and "cock on opening" bolt systems), the Lee-Enfield series of bolt-action rifles and carbines have a 10-round detachable magazine and a "cock on closing" bolt system, which allowed a well-trained rifleman to fire between 15 to 30 aimed rounds in under 1 minute. Between 1895 and 1957, around 17 million Lee-Enfields have been produced and, as of 2010; are still in circulation today.
See Also
- Royal Small Arms Factory - A list of weapons produced by RSAF Enfield