The British equivalent of the German Mauser has one trump on it, a 10 round magazine, compared to 8. The British adopted it into the army in 1895 and used it exclusively until 1957. Soldiers were drilled until they could perform “the mad minute,” firing 30 rounds in 60 seconds and hitting 30 targets. This required reloading twice, and working the bolt back and forth in less than half a second.

The rifle is accurate to 1,000 yards with open sights, and served in India (notoriously used against unarmed civilians), the Boer War, both World Wars, and many others.



.303 Lee-Enfield

Leading Aircraftman R Stuart of Birkenhead retrieves tools from a flooded equipment chest following heavy rain at Celone, Foggia Airfield Complex, Southern Italy, Spring 1944. In the background a Handley Page Halifax Mark IIs of No. 614 Squadron RAF, based at Celone from March 1944 until May of the same year, and a Republic P-47s of the USAAF’s 15th Air Force parked on the airfield. Victor Sierra

A lake? No, is an airfield

A British pilot, Amy Johnson earned her pilot license and ground engineer’s license in 1929. She began flying long-distance record-breaking flights shortly after. She was the first woman to fly from London, England to Australia solo, the first (along with Jack Humphries as co-pilot) to fly from London to Moscow, and set speed records for flying to Japan, and Cape Town, South Africa. During WWII, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), flying military planes to and from air bases, factories, and Maintenance Units. On January 5th, 1941, she was flying from RAF Prestwick in Ayrshire to RAF Kidlington in Oxfordshire when she was forced to ditch her plane in the Thames Estuary. She was off course, and out of fuel when she bailed out. There has been some controversy surrounding her death, including a claim that she was the victim of a friendly fire incident, and the theory that she was on a top secret mission when she crashed. The first ATA fatality in the war, her body was never recovered.

