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- zenda2 - 06-20-2002
This is your rifle:
http://www.highspeedlane.net/m1917/
http://www.public.asu.edu/~roblewis/SMLE/IIID2a5.htm
And this is your (machine) gun:
http://www.tomtownsend-toyland.com/toyland/m1917_machine_gun.htm
Not the first time that the US Army used the same model/year nomenclature M1917 for more than one item. In this case, both the (US-Enfield) rifle and the machine gun.
And a bit of movie trivia:
http://www.nitpickers.com/movies/comments/18446.html
Nitpick Number: 23737
Movie Title: Sergeant York - 1941
Nitpick Summary: wrong rifle
Nitpick Details: Sgt. York is shown armed with an M1903 Springfield rifle. In reality, he accomplished his Medal of Honor feat armed with an M1917 Enfield rifle, which was the primary rifle of the US Army in World War 1.
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Comment Summary: It was NOT the primary rifle.
Comment Details: The M1917 was not the primary rifle of the U.S. military during World War I. True, there were about 2,000,000 of the rifles manufactured between 1917 and 1918, they were NOT the primary rifle of the U.S. military during W.W.I. The primary rifle of the U.S. military in 1918 was the old M1903 Springfield. Believe it or not, but Sgt. York actually prefered the M1903 over the M1917 for one and only one reason, the sights. Because he was use to hunting with an old Springfield musket, he was use to the sights on the musket and he was at home with the the sights on his M1903 during training. But when he was in France in 1918, he hated the M1917 due to the "peep" sight, which in reality made the '17 Enfield much more accurate than the '03. But anyway, the M1903 was probably more widely availible in 1941 on the open market than the M1917 was, due to the fact that Britian was fighting Germany at the time of this movie, over 1,000,000 of the rifles were shipped to Britain during the war, which could explain why he was shown with a M1903 in the movie.
Re: Medal of Honor
http://www.cmohs.org/medal.htm
P.S.
Dad sold his old (Sporterized) '03 last fall, while I had MY Enfield stolen ~ 12 years ago. Still got a very slick old 30-40 Krag from the Spanish-American War/Phillipine Insurrection.
I'm fond of these old WWI era guns, collect ~ WWI era Swedish Mausers these days, in fact.
[This message has been edited by zenda2 (edited 06-20-2002).]
[This message has been edited by zenda2 (edited 06-20-2002).]
- hotwine - 06-20-2002
The URL that I cited (http://www-acala1.ria.army.mil/LC/cs/csi/sahist.htm) is a history page from the Rock Island Arsenal's Website, with that arsenal being the U.S. Army TACOM cognizant agency for Infantry weapons. That makes it authoritative.
- zenda2 - 06-20-2002
Gil, the M1903 was the standard issue rifle before, during and after WWI. There weren't enough of 'em as we entered the war, so the US ordered a re-tooled 1914 SMLE converted to 30-06, called this the M1917 rifle. There were hundreds of thousands of 'em made. They're not on your authoritative Rock Island armory list...Rock Island didn't make 'em. They were made by Winchester & Remington, on contract, using the tooling originally set up for their previous English Enfield contract but retooled for the US 30-06. They weren't the 'official issue' rifle, but the US army bought them as the factories churned out hundreds of thousands of 'em quickly. By the time we sent the doughboys over, more than 50% of the GI's 'over there' went with one. The M1917 was kind of ugly, rugged, accurate but didn't have good windage adjustment and at the end of the war they went into war-storage. A lot of them later went to the Nationalist Chinese cause, many went into the Reserves during WWII, and after the war they got 'sporterized' by the carload. (Anything that shot the .30-06 got sporterized, and the old 06 rifles are now pretty rare in original condition, except the Garand, not a lot of sporterizing with those).
You don't have to believe me. Stop in at Collectors Arms in Houston next time you're over there and ask 'em to drop one of these on your toe. If your toe doesn't hurt, then I'm just making all this up.