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Description
A rather obscure rifle with a complex history.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the British Army, as most armies of the time did, had three seperate rifles. A "Long Rifle" for the Infantry, an "Infantry Carbine" for the Engineers and Gunners etc, and a "Cavalry Carbine" for the Mounted Troops. In 1907 the Lee-Enfield SMLE No.1 Mk I came into service, and it caused a stir. Rather than 3 seperate rifles, the SMLE was of intermediate length and was designed for all three branches. America followed suit soon after with the M1903A1 Springfield. The old guard in the Higher Command thought the SMLE was a useless weapon. Too long for the Cavalry and too short for accurate long range shooting with the Infantry, they sought an immediate replacement. They looked at several designs, including the Mauser M98 and the M1903A1 Springfield. Eventually the design known as Pattern P-13 was settled on. It was a long rifle with a 5 round internal magazine, Mauser Bolt-Action and boared to the new powerful .276 Calibre. However the .276 Calibre was dangerous and prone to premature explosions and blowbacks (the shockwave from the bullet fires back down the barrel and blows the breech back in your face), and so it was reboared to the traditional .303 Rimmed Calibre as used by the SMLE. It never caught on for use as an infantrymans rifle but it was easier to fit a scope to it than the SMLE and so it entered service as a Snipers Rifle as the Pattern P-14.

In 1917 the United States entered the First World War. Soon the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) found itself short of M1903A1 Springfields, and General 'Blackjack' Pershings Command Staff sought a local alternative. Finding the French Rifles to be primitive and too dissimilar to the Springfield for ease of training, they went to the British Royal Armories at Enfield, London. They had a few thousand Pattern P-14 Rifles in storage, and the AEF bought them and ordered them and 100,000 more to be produced to the American .30-06 Springfield Cartridge. The Pattern P-14 became the M1917 Enfield in American Service and it almost replaced the M1903A1 as the Standard Issue American Rifle.

After the Armistice, the Pattern P-14 was declared reserve standard and put in storage, as was the M1917 Enfield stateside. When hostilities broke out again in 1939, the Pattern P-14 was brought out of storage and issued to Home Guard Units. The M1917 Enfield was issued as Emergency Standard to troops in the Pacific and National Guard Reservists. By 1944, all Pattern P-14 and M1917 Enfields had been withdrawn from service.

Description
A rather obscure rifle with a complex history.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the British Army, as most armies of the time did, had three seperate rifles. A "Long Rifle" for the Infantry, an "Infantry Carbine" for the Engineers and Gunners etc, and a "Cavalry Carbine" for the Mounted Troops. In 1907 the Lee-Enfield SMLE No.1 Mk I came into service, and it caused a stir. Rather than 3 seperate rifles, the SMLE was of intermediate length and was designed for all three branches. America followed suit soon after with the M1903A1 Springfield. The old guard in the Higher Command thought the SMLE was a useless weapon. Too long for the Cavalry and too short for accurate long range shooting with the Infantry, they sought an immediate replacement. They looked at several designs, including the Mauser M98 and the M1903A1 Springfield. Eventually the design known as Pattern P-13 was settled on. It was a long rifle with a 5 round internal magazine, Mauser Bolt-Action and boared to the new powerful .276 Calibre. However the .276 Calibre was dangerous and prone to premature explosions and blowbacks (the shockwave from the bullet fires back down the barrel and blows the breech back in your face), and so it was reboared to the traditional .303 Rimmed Calibre as used by the SMLE. It never caught on for use as an infantrymans rifle but it was easier to fit a scope to it than the SMLE and so it entered service as a Snipers Rifle as the Pattern P-14.

In 1917 the United States entered the First World War. Soon the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) found itself short of M1903A1 Springfields, and General 'Blackjack' Pershings Command Staff sought a local alternative. Finding the French Rifles to be primitive and too dissimilar to the Springfield for ease of training, they went to the British Royal Armories at Enfield, London. They had a few thousand Pattern P-14 Rifles in storage, and the AEF bought them and ordered them and 100,000 more to be produced to the American .30-06 Springfield Cartridge. The Pattern P-14 became the M1917 Enfield in American Service and it almost replaced the M1903A1 as the Standard Issue American Rifle.

After the Armistice, the Pattern P-14 was declared reserve standard and put in storage, as was the M1917 Enfield stateside. When hostilities broke out again in 1939, the Pattern P-14 was brought out of storage and issued to Home Guard Units. The M1917 Enfield was issued as Emergency Standard to troops in the Pacific and National Guard Reservists. By 1944, all Pattern P-14 and M1917 Enfields had been withdrawn from service.