Should not be confused with the British Lee–Enfield
The M1917 Enfield, the "American Enfield", formally named "United States
Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917" was an American modification and production of
the British .303-inch P14 rifle developed and manufactured during the
period 1917–1918. Numerically, it was the main rifle used by the American
Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I.
History Before World War I, the British had the
Short Magazine Lee–Enfield as their main rifle. Compared to the German Mausers or
U.S. 1903 Springfield, the SMLE's .303 rimmed cartridge, originally a black
powder cartridge, was ill-suited for feeding in magazine or belt-fed weapons
and the SMLE was less accurate than its competition at longer ranges. Hand in
hand with development of an improved cartridge for the SMLE, a committee was
formed to develop an entirely new design of rifle and cartridge. This began by
copying many of the features of the Mauser system. This development included
a front locking, dual lug bolt action with Mauser type claw extractor as well
as a new, powerful rimless .276 Enfield cartridge. Ease of manufacture was also
an important criterion. However, the onset of World War I came too quickly
for the UK to put it into production before the new cartridge could be
perfected. As it entered World War I, the UK had an
urgent need for rifles, and contracts for the new rifle were placed with arms
companies in the United States. They decided to ask these companies to
produce the new rifle design in the old .303 caliber for convenience of
ammunition logistics. The new rifle was termed the "Pattern 14". In the case of
the P14 rifle, Winchester and Remington were selected. A third manufacturer,
Eddystone Arsenal – a subsidiary of Remington – was tooled up at the Baldwin
Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Thus, three variations of
the P14 and M1917 exist, labeled "Winchester," "Remington" and
"Eddystone". = World War I=
When the U.S. entered the war, it had a similar need for rifles. The Springfield
Armory had delivered approximately 843,000 M1903 rifles, but due to the
difficulties in production, rather than re-tool the Pattern 14 factories to
produce the standard U.S. rifle, the M1903 Springfield, it was realized that
it would be much quicker to adapt the British design for the U.S. .30-06
cartridge, for which it was well-suited. Accordingly, Remington Arms Co. altered
the design for caliber .30-06, under the close supervision of the U.S. Army
Ordnance Department, which was formally adopted as the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30,
Model of 1917. In addition to Remington's production at Ilion, New
York and Eddystone, Pennsylvania, Winchester produced the rifle at their
New Haven, Connecticut plant, a combined total more than twice the 1903's
production, and was the unofficial service rifle. Eddystone made 1,181,908
rifles – more than the production of Remington and Winchester combined.
Design changes were few; the magazine, bolt face, chamber and rifling
dimensions were altered to suit the .30-06 cartridge and the volley fire
sights on the left side of the weapon were deleted. The markings were changed
to reflect the model and caliber change. A 16.5-inch blade bayonet, the M1917
Bayonet was produced for use on the rifle. It would later be used on several
other small arms like the Winchester M12 trench shotgun and early M1 Garands.
The new rifle was used alongside the M1903 Springfield rifle and quickly
surpassed the Springfield design in numbers produced and units issued. By
November 11, 1918 about 75% of the AEF in France were armed with M1917s.
An M1917 Enfield rifle may have been used by Sergeant Alvin York on October
8, 1918, during the event that would see him awarded the Medal of Honor.
According to his diary, Sergeant York also used a .45 Colt semi-automatic
pistol on that day. After the armistice, the M1917 rifles
were placed in storage for the most part, although Chemical Mortar units
continued to be issued them. During the 1920s and 1930s a large number of M1917
rifles were released for civilian use through the NRA or were sold as surplus.
Many were sporterized, sometimes including rechambering to more powerful
magnum hunting cartridges, such as .300 H&H Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum.
It was so popular as a sporting weapon that Remington manufactured about 30,000
new rifles as the Model 30 from 1921 to 1940.
= World War II= At the time of the American entry into
World War II, the U.S. Army was still issuing the M1917 to Chemical Mortarmen.
Perhaps due to M1 Garand shortages at the start of the war, the M1917 was also
issued to artillerymen early in the war and both mortarmen and artillerymen
carried the M1917 in North Africa. Lieutenant Colonel Charles E. Peterson,
a Major in the 101st Airborne in the Normandy action, reported seeing some
M1917 rifles issued to rear-echelon US troops in France during World War II.
Other M1917 rifles were issued to the Philippine Commonwealth Army and
Philippine Constabulary. After the fall of the Philippines, M1917 rifles were
used by Japanese police forces as well as by U.S. and Filipino soldiers with
the local guerrillas before the liberation of the Philippines.
Before and during World War II, stored rifles were reconditioned for use as
reserve, training and Lend-Lease weapons; these rifles are identified by
having refinished metal and sometimes replacement wood. Some of these rifles
were reconditioned with new bolts manufactured by the United Shoe
Machinery Company and stamped USMC leading to the mistaken impression these
were United States Marine Corps rifles. Many were bought by the United Kingdom
through the British Purchasing Commission for use by the Home Guard;
615,000 arrived in Britain in the summer of 1940, followed by a further 119,000
in 1941. These were prominently marked with a red paint stripe around the stock
to avoid confusion with the earlier P14 that used the British .303 round. Others
were supplied to the Nationalist Chinese forces, to indigenous forces in the
China-Burma-India theatre, to Filipino soldiers under the Philippine Army and
Constabulary units and the local guerrilla forces and to the Free French
Army, which can occasionally be seen in wartime photographs. The M1917 was also
issued to the Local Defence Force of the Irish Army during World War II, these
were part-time soldiers akin to the British Home Guard. In an ironic
reversal of names, in Irish service the M1917 was often referred to as the
"Springfield"; presumably since an "Enfield" rifle was assumed to be the
standard Irish MkIII Short Magazine Lee–Enfield, while "Springfield" was
known to be an American military arsenal.
The M1917 was supplied to both Denmark and Norway after WWII as an interim
weapon prior to the arrival of the M1 Garand.
= Korean War and after= After World War II, the M1917 went out
of front-line duty. The rifle continued to serve as a sniper rifle during the
Korean War, and limited numbers saw service at the early stages of the
Vietnam War. This rifle was also used, unofficially, in small Middle-East and
African conflicts as a military-assistance program supplied
rifle. Current use
The M1917 is used as a ceremonial and drilling rifle, as with the M1903, M1
Garand, and M14. For battle purposes, the Danish Slædepatruljen Sirius still
use the M1917 as their service weapon, due to the high reliability of these
bolt-action rifles in the harsh conditions of high Arctic Greenland.
Design details Both P14 and M1917 rifles are noted for
several design features. The rifle was designed with a rear receiver aperture
sight, protected by sturdy "ears," a design that proved to be faster and more
accurate than the typical mid-barrel sight offered by Mauser, Enfield or the
Buffington battle sight of the 1903 Springfield. Future American rifles,
such as the 1903-A3 Springfield, M1 and M1 Carbine would all use such receiver
sights. The M1917 sight was situated on an elongated receiver bridge, which
added weight to the action, as well as lengthening the bolt. The M1917 action
weighs 58 oz versus 45 oz for the 1903 Springfield.
The rifle maintains the British cock-on-closing feature, in which the
bolt's mainspring is loaded and the rifle cocked as part of the return
stroke of the bolt, which aided rapid fire, especially as the action heated
up. Most bolt action designs after the Mauser 98 cocked as part of the opening
stroke. The rifle has a characteristic "belly" due to a deeper magazine,
allowing the rifle to hold six rounds of the US .30-06 cartridge in the magazine,
and one in the chamber. In a manufacturing change from the Mauser 98
and the derivative Springfield, the bolt is not equipped with a third 'safety'
lug. Instead, as on the earlier Model 1895 Mauser, the bolt handle recesses
into a notch in the receiver, which serves as an emergency locking lug in
the event of failure of the frontal locking lugs. This change saved machine
time needed on the rifle bolt, cutting costs and improving production rates,
and this alteration has since been adopted by many commercial bolt-action
rifle designs for the same reasons. The location of the safety on the right rear
of the receiver has also been copied by most sporting bolt-action rifles since,
as it falls easily under the firer's thumb. One notable design flaw was the
leaf spring that powered the ejector, which could break off and render the
ejector inoperable. A combat-expedient repair method was to slip a bit of
rubber under the bolt stop spring. A redesigned ejector, incorporating a
small coil spring in place of the fragile leaf spring, was developed and
can be fitted to the M1917 to remedy this issue.
The M1917 was well-suited to the powerful, rimless .30-06 round which was
closer in overall length and ballistics to the original high-velocity round for
which the rifle had been designed than the rimmed, less powerful .303 round of
the P14. The M1917's barrel retained the 5-groove left hand twist Enfield-type
rifling of the P14, in contrast to the 4-groove right hand twist rifling of the
M1903 Springfield and other US designed arms.The M1917 had a long 26-inch
heavyweight barrel compared to the lighter 24-inch barrel of the M1903
Springfield. With the longer sighting plane, the M1917 proved generally more
accurate at long distances than the M1903, at the expense of greater weight.
The M1917 weighed 9 lb. 3 oz. empty, and a rifle with sling, oiler, and fixed
bayonet weighed over 11 pounds. The M1917's long barrel and issued 16.5-inch
blade bayonet proved too lengthy and cumbersome for trench fighting, while
its weight and overall length made the rifle difficult to use for some
smaller-statured soldiers. Many M1917 Enfield rifles were
refurbished during World War II with newly manufactured High Standard barrels
with 4-groove rifling and Johnson Automatics barrels which had 2-groove
rifling. = X Force shortened M1917=
X Force was the name given to a portion of the Chinese Army equipped and trained
by the US during World War II. One of the weapons given to X Force was the
M1917 rifle. These rifles were too big for the small statured Chinese soldiers
so the barrels and stocks were shortened from an overall length of 46 inches for
the standard M1917 to a 41-inch rifle. Design
While developed at the same arsenal, the M1917 is not a version of the .303
caliber rifle of c. 1890–1955, the Lee–Enfield. Both were developed at the
Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield in the United Kingdom. Like the 1903
Springfield, the M1917 actually used the basic Mauser 98 rifle design coupled
with a few modifications. Due to the original P13 action being designed
around a high-powered .276 round with a larger diameter case than the .30-06,
the magazine capacity for the smaller diameter 30-06 was 6 rounds, although
stripper clips held only five cartridges.
The M1917 action proved very strong, and was used as the basis for a variety of
commercial and gunsmith-made sporting rifles in standard and magnum calibers
between the world wars and after. Later, Remington Arms redesigned the M1917,
removing the "ears" and changing it to cock-on-open, to become the Remington
Model 30 series of rifles in the interwar period. Some M1917 rifles were
produced in 7 mm and sold to Honduras around 1930. Additional surplus rifles
were bought by European arms distributors and converted to 8x57
Mauser, then sold for use in the civil war in Spain during the 1930s.
Users Australia
Canada China
Denmark: From 1953 in Home Guard—currently in service with the
Slædepatruljen Sirius in Greenland France
Honduras: Made for 7mm Ireland: Around 20,000 used by the Local
Defence Force during the Emergency Latvia: Used in the Latvian War of
Independence Malaysia
Netherlands: lend-lease from USA New Zealand
Norway: Used after World War II Philippines
Portugal South Korea: used during the Korean War
South Vietnam: used during the Vietnam War
United Kingdom United States: Used by United States
Army And United States Marine Corps See also
List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces
References External links
Olive-Drab.Com - M-1917 Enfield rifle Modern Firearms - The M-1917 Enfield
rifle FM 23-6 Basic Field Manual: U.S. Rifle,
Caliber .30, M1917, 20 October 1943 SurplusRifle.com - United States Rifle
Model 1917*FM 23-6 Basic Field Manual: U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1917, 20
October 1943 [1]