Japanese markings
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URL: http://www.enfield-rifles.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=10402
Printed Date: March 26 2026 at 6:34pm
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Topic: Japanese markings
Posted By: sluggercat
Subject: Japanese markings
Date Posted: March 14 2020 at 5:41am
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he!!o all When I was a teen (about 50 years ago) a friend bought me a SMLE .303 that his grandfather had taken from a Japanese soldier who wasn't using it anymore in WW2. It had Japanese (proof?) stamps over some of the British marking. His grandpa said several Japanese were using them there. If I remember correctly he said it was Burma but I could be wrong. Was that something that happened often? I wish I still had it but a house fire took care of it and much more. Thanks sluggercat ------------- Shoot more talk less |
Replies:
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: March 14 2020 at 11:17am
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welcome , might have - supply chain might have been difficult depending on where it was found , i would have loved to see the photos ,
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Posted By: smerdon42
Date Posted: March 14 2020 at 11:23am
| it could be that it was a captured rifle , remember that sometime sin battle you picked up the enemies rifle once you where done with ammo to keep fighting . Burma was a commonwealth defence force with British commanders and had Indian Pakistani Australian New Zealand and British troops. IT could be a rifle from any of their factories. I have a 1914 Lithgow that was rebuilt at India’s factory in 1932 and put into service with the Indian army . |
Posted By: sluggercat
Date Posted: March 14 2020 at 12:36pm
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I had 2 pictures but lost them before the fire and never bothered to take more. I looked for the metal parts but the house burnt to the ground and I found nothing but a barrel from my dad's .22. I loved the way that .303 shot. It had a pop up sight that I believe was marked to 1200 meters. Not that I ever tried. ------------- Shoot more talk less |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: March 14 2020 at 2:33pm
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Another possibility...immediatly after the 2nd twirl at war, IndoChina was over run by Khmer Rouge. It fell to the British to quell this & hold onto the territory. They were having a great deal of difficulty in this..but they had alot of Japaneese P.O.W.s in their care as well. The Japanese couldn't return home. The British made them an offer to fight alongside the British against the insurgents. The Japanese volunteered in large enough numbers to make it work. It MAY be a possibilty thats where it came from. ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: terrylee
Date Posted: March 14 2020 at 11:53pm
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A sketch by Ronald Searle of his Japanese guard while a prisoner of war (To the Kwai - and Back. War Drawings 1935-1945)  |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: March 15 2020 at 9:53am
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Don't forget the Japanese were on our side in WW1 so maybe the SMLE's were given to them back then for some reason. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: terrylee
Date Posted: March 15 2020 at 10:14am
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So far as I remember the British bought about 150,000 Arisakas from the Japanese. They were short of rifles, not the Japs ! |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: March 15 2020 at 11:21am
Really? Wow.. any info on where, when & why? ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
terrylee wrote:Posted By: paddyofurniture
Date Posted: March 15 2020 at 12:23pm
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Most went to Russian ,RN, and Finland. ------------- Always looking for military manuals, Dodge M37 items,books on Berlin Germany, old atlases ( before 1946) , military maps of Scotland. English and Canadian gun parts. |
Posted By: Marco1010
Date Posted: March 15 2020 at 5:31pm
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Japanese would have captured large stocks of Lee Enfields at the fall of Singapore. Typical that they would be issued to second and third line units such as those guarding POW's also large numbers of indian army soldiers went over to the japanese after the british defeat, many of these also acted as guards for POW's. Read of british soldiers being given unissued LE rifles just days before Singapore fell, only problem was they had been in the paper and cosmoline for decades. frantic cleaning needed to make them usable. |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: March 15 2020 at 6:44pm
| its an interesting side note to terry lees post that the P1907 bayonet is a direct decedent of the arrisaka design , right down to the hooked quillon , |