This weapon has subsequently been identified as a British Lee Enfield Rifle!!
So, a little after finding the first weapon, they found another one! And to be honest, by this stage I just felt a little stupid for not having found them myself, but I guess I was just a bit excited at the weekend to notice.This one was at the other end of the tunnel, and like the first the stock had rotted away. It was also appeared to be a rifle. The metal on the second was in better condition (perhaps because it had been covered under the corrogated sheet) although still "decommissioned". This has again since been identied as a British Lee Enfield Rifle. What British Rifles were doing in a German Bunker we can only speculate at the moment.
No magazines or ammunion found though, although we haven't started sifting through all the dirt on the floor yet.
We also found a tin of green gunk (which the others thought might once have been green nazi paint)
And the "rings" in this bucket on closer inspection turned out to contain nuts??
See JerseySi and BunkerMonkey's own report and pictures here:-
10 comments:
Dave is a legend!
There would have been many Lee-Enfield rifles in the Channel Islands at the time of the German occupation, and those were all supposedly confiscated. Some of them might have been stored in the tunnel among other places, so it's not too surprising that a couple were left to rot when the place was abandoned and covered up. Who knows, maybe the house owner stashed a couple for his own use in case such a thing ever happened again, but I would have expected them to have been wrapped and protected better.
Hi there, You know have the readers of ACUK airsoft forums, gripped with your tale: http://www.airsoftcommunity.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=128372
The guns are so badly weathered and corroded - is it possible they could have been burned by German forces?
That would explain why there isn't a scrap of wood left on them and also why they were left lying around after the Germans left.
Both those LE's are early WW1 models.Both are missing parts,magazines,triggers and floorplates.HTH
The rifles look to be No1MkIII Short Magazine Lee Enfields. The magazine cut-offs which are one of the distinguishing features in comparison to the WW I production-expedient No1MkIII* version are visible on both. These are not necessarily pre-war or early WW I vintage; they went back into production in England in the '20s through 1940 or so.
One still has the stock bolt in place, which would support a "rotting off" or "burnt" explanation of where the furniture went, but both are messing many metal parts as well.
Cannibalized to repair other rifles, possibly?
The bolts are missing from the
guns. Obviously this renders the
rifles useless - this is what you
do if you want to put the weapon in
safe storage (you then put the
bolts in a safe). Or you can just
destroy the bolts if you want to
junk them permanently. Which
probably is the case here, because
no military person with self
respect would put away a rifle to
rust in such storage, right? My
vote is the Germans put them there.
The nutshells look like the leftovers from a mouse. Quite
recent, too, so there must have
been a small opening somewhere
even before.
BTW I also found a 'bunker' in my
garden, that's why I found your
blog. I doubt it is military
though, and definitely not German.
Maybe an A-bomb shelter (it's from
'58 I think).
Keep up the good work! Very exciting.
This is really very fascinating so far. I can't wait to get on to the next page!
I will definitely pass this story on to friends here in Murkah.
All Guns was badly damaged.
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