The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service … See more

The Lee–Enfield rifle was introduced in November 1895 as the .303 calibre, Rifle, Magazine, Lee–Enfield, or more commonly magazine Lee–Enfield, or MLE (sometimes spoken as "emily" instead of M, L, E). The next year, a shorter version was introduced as … See more

The best-known Lee–Enfield rifle, the SMLE Mk III, was introduced on 26 January 1907, along with a Pattern 1907 bayonet and … See more

In 1926, the British Army changed its nomenclature; the SMLE became known as the Rifle No. 1 Mk III or III*, with the original MLE and LEC becoming obsolete along with the earlier … See more

The Lee–Enfield rifle was derived from the earlier Lee–Metford, a mechanically similar black-powder rifle, which combined James Paris Lee's … See more

A shorter and lighter version of the original MLE—the Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee–Enfield or SMLE (sometimes spoken as "Smelly", rather than "S-M-L-E") —was introduced on 1 … See more

The SMLE design was relatively expensive to manufacture, because of the many forging and machining operations required. In the 1920s, a series of experiments were … See more