My Dad, in North Africa, in March 1943, wrote that he was issued with "rifle E493". Anybody know what this rife?
Probably the number the unit put on the rifle so they knew which rifle he was issued with & which he would sign for.
Ha, thank you. I miss typed the year. It should have been 1942, not 1943. The unit he was in was 155th Battery of the 52nd Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, R.A., Territorial Army.
Every rifle had a serial number when manufactured. If what I've read is correct, when issued to a unit each rifle also got what was known as a rack number, and this was the number used to track it. These numbers were often stenciled on in white and some surviving rifles today still have them.
