The Lee–Enfield bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle was 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.
A redesign of the Lee–Metford (adopted by the British Army in 1888), the Lee–Enfield superseded the earlier Martini–Henry, Martini–Enfield, and Lee–Metford rifles.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 (these Commonwealth nations included Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India and South Africa, among others). 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 L42 sniper variant remained in service until the 1990s. As a standard-issue infantry rifle, it is still found in service in the armed forces of some Commonwealth nations, notably with the Bangladesh Police, which makes it the longest-serving military bolt-action rifle still in official service. The Canadian Forces' Rangers Arctic reserve unit still used Enfield No.4 rifles as of 2012, with plans announced to replace the weapons sometime in 2014 or 2015. Total production of all Lee–Enfields is estimated at over 17 million rifles.
Let it rain a day, a week, a year
Let it rain a thousand years a day
That's the divine answer to all the shed tears
That's the cyclic Flood well known by those who know
One drop for every broken dream
and one for every conceived plan
Our seeds sown larger
Our roots will go deeper
Our trees will grow higher and now we wait the rain
Let cry the skies to cleanse the souls
Let fall the seas to wash the pain away
That's the final run to the New Age
That's the first step beyond the threshold of this world
One drop for every broken dream
and one for every conceived plan
Our seeds sown larger
Our roots will go deeper
Our trees will grow higher and now we call the rain
Here rings a warning
A day of wrath for all the days of war
A storm of fury
to calm the hunger left
Our seeds sown larger
Our roots will go deeper
Our trees will grow higher and now we bring the rain
Our seeds - larger
Our roots - deeper