The 'Brown Bess' Musket

Brown Bess is the nickname of the British Army's Land Pattern Musket which entered into service in 1722. This musket, albiet in modified form, was kept in service till 1838.

In 1790 a version with a shorter, 89inch, barrel had been manufactured for the British East India Company. This type of musket, known as the India Pattern, was adopted by the British Army and was the standard musket of the infantry at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The Brown Bess was a flintlock, muzzle-loading musket. It weighed around 5kg and could be fitted with an 18inch long triangular bayonet. This musket was not very accurate and although its range was 100 yards it was seldom effective when fired to hit anything beyond 50 yards. A trained soldier could fire a maximum of three rounds a minute using this weapon.

The Baker rifle was adopted by the British Army in 1800 for issue to the Rifle regiments which had been set-up that same year. This rifle was produced by the English gunsmith Ezekiel Baker, hence its name. The Baker rifle had a 30inch long barrel which could be fitted with a menacing looking 24inch sword-bayonet. The rifle weighed about 4kg.

The grooves cut into the inside of the barrel (rifling) imparted a spin to the bullet. This made the rifle a more accurate weapon, and gave it a range in excess of 200 yards. In the expert hands of the green-clad Rifle regiments, the Baker rifle proved itself a lethal weapon during the Penisular War and at the Battle of Waterloo. The Baker rifle was kept in service till 1838 when it was replaced by the Brunswick rifle.

The Baker Rifle

 The Tower Musket

Flintlocks as firing mechanisms were not considered to be very reliable, especially in wet weather. After experimental trials, the percussion lock was adopted by the British Army in 1839. This system used a small copper cap containing fulminite of mecury, which exploded when hit by the lock's hammer. This resulted in a more reliable weapon, the Tower percussion musket, which was adopted in 1842.

The Tower musket had a 39inch barrel and could be fitted with an 18inch triangular bayonet. This musket was a smoothbore and therefore it was largely as inacurate as the Brown Bess it replaced. This type of musket was widely used by the British Army during the Crimean War of 1854-56.

In 1853 the British Army adopted the Enfield rifle. This rifle was outwardly identical to the Tower percussion musket, but the barrel was rifled. This rifle used an elongated bullet which had been devised by the French Colonel Minie. The Minie bullet was easier to load into a rifle than the round bullets which had hitherto been in use. This made it possible to make the rifle the standard weapon throughout the army and not just the preserve of the specialized Rifle regiments. The Enfield had a range of 2000 yards and markesmen were trained to hit their target at distances of up to 900 yards.

As from 1855 the Enfield rifle started being issued to the troops fighting in the Crimea. This weapon, or rather its ammunition, was one of the contributing factors which caused the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It was rumoured that the paper cartridges used with this rifle were greased with cow and pig fat a thing which was objectionable on religious grounds for both the Hindu and Muslim sepoys. The Enfield rifle was kept in service till 1867 when it was replaced by the Snider-Enfield rifle.

The Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle

 The Snider-Enfield Rifle

The Snider-Enfield was a breech-loading rifle that was converted from the 1853 Enfield rifle. An opening was cut out of the rear part of the musket's barrel. This was then plugged by a side-hinged breech block. This action was invented by an American gunsmith, Jacob Snider.

This was the first weapon in British service to have a centre-fire cartridge, which was devised by Colonel Boxer of the Royal Arsenal. This rifle weighed almost 4kg and had a maximum range of 2000 yards. The rate of fire of this rifle was up to 10 rounds per minute.

The Snider-Enfield was widely used during the wars with the Maoris in New Zealand in the 1860s. It was kept in service till 1871 when it was replaced by the Martin Henry rifle.

The Martin-Henry rifle was the the first purposely built breech-loading rifle of the British Army. It was introduced into service in 1871, and was replaced by a new weapon, the bolt-action Lee Metford, in 1888. The breech mechanism of this rifle was activated by means of a lever-action which had been developed by Fiedrich vo Martini. The rifled barrel was designed by Alexander Henry. Hence the name of the rifle, Martini-Henry.

This rifle used metal cartridges and a trained soldier could achieve a rate of fire of 10 rounds a minute. It weighed slightly less than 4kg and could be fitted with a 25inch triangular bayonet. This weapon had a range of 1500 yards.

The Martini-Henry rifle was widely used during the Zulu War of 1879. Design defects in the manufacture of the coiled brass cartridges combined with overheating caused by heavy use and the African climate, resulted in a number of weapons jamming during action. This was part to blame for the calamitous disaster suffered by the British at the hands of the Zulus at Isandhlwana.

The Martini-Henry Rifle

The Lee Metford Magazine Rifle

The Lee Metford was the British Army's first bolt-action, magazine-fed rifle. It entered service in 1888. The rifle's bolt action and magazine were designed by James Paris Lee whereas the barrel was designed by William Ellis Metford. This rifle had a 30inch long barrel and had a maximum range of 1800 yards.

The Lee Metford was the first British rifle to introduce the 0.303inch calibre ammunition. At first the Lee Metford used black-powder charged cartridges. Later it changed to smokeless powder (cordite). However the Metford rifling was not adequate for cordite and a new barrel was designed at the small arms factory in Enfield. This resulted in the production of the Lee Enfield rifle in 1895.

The Lee Metford's magazine carried ten rounds. This weapon was used with deadly effect at the battle of Omdurman during the Sudan Campaign of 1898.

The Boer War of 1898-1902 revealed serious shortcomings in the functioning of the British Army. The Lee Enfield rifle was seen to be outclassed by the German Mausers with which the Boers were equipped. A committee recommended that the faults revealed in the Lee Enfield be corrected in a new rifle. This led to the production of the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) late in 1902.

Among the new features of this rifle were a charger-fed magazine which speeded up loading, and greatly improved aiming sights. The barrel of this rifle was 5inches shorter than that of the Lee Enfield. The nosecap too was modified in order to reduce the strain produced by the bayonet on the barrel.

This rifle weighed 3.8kg. It was sighted up to 2800yards. A trained soldier could reach an awesome rate of fire of 20-30 aimed shots a minute. A version of this rifle was the British Army's standard weapon during the First World War.

The Short Magazine Lee Enfield Rifle