Nigel Hallworth

AN ENGLISHMAN'S HORSE

You'll learn in your training

Saluting and marching

And you'll learn to worship your gun

Your main purpose in life

Will be pointing and aiming

Your rifle, Lee- Enfield, Mk.1

Now an Englishman's horse

Is his second best friend

His first one, of course

Is his rifle!

And a very good friend

For better or worse

Loyal and brave to the end

Is your rifle !

Love your King, love your country

Your family and friends

But here the front we

Love rifles!

Lose your home or your wife,

But never ever ever

If you value your life

Lose your rifle

Keep her oiled, keep her clean

So her inner parts gleam

You'll be judged by the sheen

On your rifle

Now you've learnt in your training

Saluting and marching

And you've learned to worship your gun!

And you know from my lectures

Your sole raison d'etre

Is your rifle, Lee- Enfield, Mk.1

The current world record for aimed bolt-action fire was set in 1914 by a musketry instructor in the British Army—Sergeant Instructor Snoxall—who placed 38 rounds into a 12-inch-wide (300 mm) target at 300 yards (270 m) in one minute.

In the first battles of the war the Germans thought that they were up against machine guns, so fast and accurate was the fire of the ordinary trained British rifleman.