Manufacturer’s markings on a Lee-Enfield rifle, supposedly assembled by the British Small Arms Company, captured by American soldiers in eastern Ghazni Province on Dec. 24.
Posted on 02/01/2011 3:53:09 PM PST by Pan_Yan
Manufacturer’s markings on a Lee-Enfield rifle, supposedly assembled by the British Small Arms Company, captured by American soldiers in eastern Ghazni Province on Dec. 24.
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We’re working on a story about Taliban organization and tactics in this patch of countryside. But when we arrived, we found that the task force’s intelligence section and its commanding officer, Lt. Col. David G. Fivecoat, had been reading the At War blog, and had assembled data and set aside recently captured weapons for the blog’s readers. Their advance work allows us to update our Taliban Gun Locker post and present a local look at how a complex but financially limited insurgency equips itself to fight materially superior American and Afghan units.
First, the numbers: Between Nov. 27, 2010, and Jan. 20, 2011, the battalion captured 43 rifles, two PK machine guns, two RPK squad machine guns, 6 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, a shotgun, three pistols and an 82-millimeter mortar system. Of the rifles, 37 were Kalashnikov assault rifles of mixed vintage and varied provenance, five were Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifles and one was an SKS. This was a familiar mix for the current Afghan war. Most of the equipment was superficially in disrepair, but otherwise functional, although one of the Lee-Enfield rifles had a loose, freely moving stock and was in no condition for accurate shooting.
Within the assortment, two of these rifles were particularly eye-catching: a pair of apparent Short Magazine Lee Enfields, known among those who follow firearms evolution as S.M.L.E.’s, that were captured by the battalion’s B Company during a village sweep on Dec. 24. (I say apparent for a reason; more on that in a moment.)
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Notice the size difference of a folding-stock AK-47 and a Lee-Enfield rifle.
(Excerpt) Read more at atwar.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Second article in series:
One Way to Retire an Old Rifle
Ping.
Thanks for the ping.
Cool old rifles. (Just picked up a 1940 Turk mauser based on a Gew88, myself)
Interesting read. Thanks for the post.
Not bad taste...with good ammo, I wouldn’t feel bad taking the Lee-Enfield to war.
I’ll take the Mosin!Cheaper ammo!
I got the author’s book about the history of the AK-47 a few months ago. It was pretty good. I’ve been watching for his articles ever since. He has an interesting series about what American officers are reading in Afghanistan. I posed a couple but no one read them so I stopped bothering.
In WWI the Brits used to say:
“The Germans took a hunting rifle to war. The Americans took a target rifle. But the Brits took a battle rifle!”
They were proud of their smellies.
I think you want this thread, it’s a bit newer.
:)
Good man! 
True about the ammo. But I like the Lee-Enfield’s quick action and higher mag capacity (10 v. 5) I wouldn’t take my Mosin to war, though. The magazine catch lets loose every time I shoot, and dumps the ammo on the ground....
M & M’s
Mosins and Mausers!
I would rather have that .303 than an M4 at 600yds.
Never had that problem .I REALLY like the Carbine.
Can I get a witness for a Krag on this thread?
I almost bought one of those....I’m told the Polish ones are the best of the lot.
I have the Russian.Carbines seem to be harder to find and are a lot easier to carry .
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