Lend Lease SRS check

[DRAGONFLYDF]

Are they even listed ? I have a Dec 41 Lend Lease, that I have owned for years, I never thought about doing a SRS check since it was a Lend Lease. the serial is 418189.
Thx

[RCS]

You have a little better chance of finding something with a four digit receiver

[Johnny P]

There may be an undiscovered document somewhere showing where the rifles were originally shipped to England, but that would be the extent of their recorded history.

[DRAGONFLYDF]

I didn't think there would be anything, but thought I would ask. Thanks for looking

[Rick the Librarian]

I noted on the above table that the 29th Infantry Regiment received a large number of the early Garands. The 29th was the Army's "test" unit and often was the first to receive new equipment.

To my knowledge, none of the Remington M1903s sent to the UK at about the same time showed up on SRS, either.

[jonnyo55]

I think that by definition lend lease rifles would NOT show up on any SRS documentation. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but SRS data comes from random mention of individual serial numbers occurring in "in service" documentation such as armory inventory records, dispositions, modifications by base armorers, etc. Lend-lease rifles, since they were usually shipped directly to England, would not have generated such data.

[Rick the Librarian]

Probably out there in the National Archives or some such place is some documentation on which rifles were sent over, but, as Johnny said, that would most likely be the extent of it.

[Dan Shapiro]

Rick, actually it was the 29th Infantry Division (The Blue and Grey) that was issued the first Garands.

[blackhawk2]

Dan, The 29th Infantry Division is a National Guard unit, and they are still in business today....The 29th Infantry Regiment was classified as the Demonstration Regiment and trainers for the then new infantry school in 1919....regards alex

[Johnny P]

I think that by definition lend lease rifles would NOT show up on any SRS documentation. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but SRS data comes from random mention of individual serial numbers occurring in "in service" documentation such as armory inventory records, dispositions, modifications by base armorers, etc. Lend-lease rifles, since they were usually shipped directly to England, would not have generated such data.

Probably if a document existed showing shipment to England, or one of the other allied countries that received Lend-Lease small arms, they would be in SRS.

For many years the Colt Model 1911A1's made in 1939 were not listed in SRS, but to the best of my knowledge they are all in SRS data now, and the only information given is that they were shipped to the Navy in 1939. It had been common knowledge for years that all of 1939 production was shipped to Sewalls Point, Virginia, to the Navy.

[M1GarandFanatic]

Hi all,
Seeing the side discussion on the 4 digit Garand
I have a four serial digit Garand, not all original obviously, but if I read the discussion right, then were they issued to the 29th Infantry Regiment as demonstrators for the Army? Just curious, as that is possibly were my four digit Garand started off life.

Interesting about the Lend Lease rifles too. One has to wonder the history about them,, if they could talk, it would sure be interesting.

M1GarandFanatic

[Johnny P]

For the most part the Model 1911A1 pistols and M1 Rifles Lend-Leased to England sat in warehouses for the duration of the war. Most came back to the U.S. in the 1950's in virtually new condition. The U.S. was still sending Model 1911A1 pistols to England as late as the March/April, 1945 time frame.

[RCS]

I found some old information that stated that about 395 gas trap serial numbers are listed as USMC from SRS, most were four digit (examples 4302 and 5976) these rifles were later returned.

Both gas trap rifles s/n 1607 and s/n 15070 were sent to Winchester, s/n 1607 was sent in Sept 1938 to Winchester