page_title: Lee–Enfield
section_title: Charlton Automatic Rifles
hierarchical_section_title: Lee–Enfield / Special service Lee–Enfields: Commando and automatic models / Charlton Automatic Rifles
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Charlton Automatic Rifle at the Waiouru Army Museum in New Zealand
context_page_description: The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle that served as the main firearm used by the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century. It was the British Army's standard rifle from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957. The WWI versions are often referred to as the "SMLE", which is short for the common "Short, Magazine, Lee–Enfield" variant.
  A redesign of the Lee–Metford, the Lee–Enfield superseded the earlier Martini–Henry, Martini–Enfield, and Lee–Metford rifles. It featured a ten-round box magazine which was loaded with the .303 British cartridge manually from the top, either one round at a time or by means of five-round chargers. The Lee–Enfield was the standard issue weapon to rifle companies of the British Army and other Commonwealth nations in both the First and Second World Wars. Although officially replaced in the UK with the L1A1 SLR in 1957, it remained in widespread British service until the early/mid-1960s and the 7.62 mm L42A1 sniper variant remained in service until the 1990s.
context_section_description: Small numbers of Lee–Enfield rifles were built as, or converted to, experimental automatic loading systems, such as the British Howell and South African Rieder and the best-known of which was the Charlton Automatic Rifle, designed by a New Zealander, Philip Charlton in 1941 to act as a substitute for the Bren and Lewis gun light machine guns which were in chronically short supply at the time. During the Second World War, the majority of New Zealand's land forces were deployed in North Africa. When Japan entered the war in 1941, New Zealand found itself lacking the light machine guns that would be required for local defence should Japan choose to invade, and so the New Zealand Government funded the development of self-loading conversions for the Lee–Enfield rifle. The end result was the Charlton Automatic Rifle (based on the obsolete MLE),  which was issued to Home Guard units in NZ from 1942. Over 1,500 conversions were made, including a handful by Electrolux using Lithgow SMLE Mk III* rifles.
  The two Charlton designs differed markedly in external appearance (amongst other things, the New Zealand Charlton had a forward pistol grip and bipod, whilst the Australian one did not), but shared the same operating mechanism. Most of the Charlton Automatic Rifles were destroyed in a fire after the Second World War, but a few examples survive in museums and private collections.
caption: Charlton Automatic Rifle
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