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Originally Posted by thinreadline
I do like the picture with 2 guys , one with a Lee Enfield No.4 rifle the other with what could be a 3 band Enfield muzzleloader .... the picture must have been taken in the 1940s or later .... the ammo supply logistics must have been interesting as I also note some are using Mauser rifles too. Anyone know what the machine guns are ? .... Love the way the chaps holding them are anticipating the Rambo method of using them !
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One of those two guys definitely has a No. 4 Mk 1, but his buddy is armed with what was a real museum piece at that time -- it's a French Mle. 1874 Gras infantry rifle, a single-shot which takes a black-powder rimmed cartridge firing an 11 mm slug. According to Robert Elgood, ARMS AND ARMOUR OF ARABIA (Scolar Press 1994), many of the latter were imported into the Yemen after they became obsolete in France; Ch. 7 of his book has a photo of one which has undergone some crude native attempts at after-market decoration and perhaps a field repair. Arms were obtained in large quantities from Belgium, Germany, and Rumania as well which would explain the Mausers (each of those countries chambered theirs in different calibers). Also interesting to know that Japanese Arisaka Type 97 rifles made their way to the Peninsula as well. When I visited the Askeri Müze in Istanbul years ago, several were on display and it seems that a quantity of them were purchased for the Ottoman Navy. Elgood (p 62) quotes T E Lawrence in describing the extremely decrepit condition of these Japanese weapons by the time they got into Arab hands, one wonders about the path they took in getting there.