Talk:Breaker Morant

Boer Commandos

A famous photo of Boer Commandos who have accepted the British amnesty and come in from the hills. Notice the front two Boers are carrying Lee Enfield rifles. It appears that the Boer in the back still has his Mauser rifle. By the end of the war most of the Boers were using captured British weapons.

The real Lt. Harry 'Breaker' Morant

A famous photo (and I believe the only known/surviving photo) of Lt. Harry 'Breaker' Morant (1864 - 1902) in uniform.

Edward Woodward as Breaker Morant.

Additional Lee Enfield information.

At least some of the rifles used in the film were actually SMLE Mk.I No. III's that had the front furniture altered to resemble Mk. Is. They used the early ones with the magazine cut-offs and replaced the bolts with the No. Is. I know this from having the opportunity to buy one at a gun show after the film was made. There were 4 up for sale. If you look at the shot of the Firing Squad you will notice that the barrels are somewhat shorter. The No. I rifle was about 3 ins. longer than the No. III. 110.175.208.235

.303 roundnose?

I noticed that during the firing-squad scene the soldiers load their Lee-Enfield rifles with a roundnose round. Yet in other scenes you can clearly see the pointy type round ("Spitzerbullet") in the ammo pouches of the British soldiers. I do not know much about roundnoses and spitzer bullets, but did the British forces use exclusively either roundnose or spitzer during the boer-war? Dudester32 (talk) 14:35, 4 February 2015 (EST)

According to this, the British did not adopt a spitzer .303 round (Mark VII) until 1910, well after the Boer War. They even adopted a new round-nosed bullet (Mark VI) after the war. --Funkychinaman (talk) 15:13, 4 February 2015 (EST)

During the Boer War British soldiers were armed with Lee-Metford and early Lee-Enfield rifles that used Mk I and Mk II cartridges with roundnose bullet. Greg-Z (talk) 15:15, 4 February 2015 (EST)

I've seen Morant himself carry spitzer bullets in his bandolier which, with your information to consider, is a movie-goof then. Thank you :) Dudester32 (talk) 09:10, 5 February 2015 (EST)

For that matter, they also wear 1870 pattern gear here, destined for Martini-Henry. The 1888 equipment is similar, but still slightly different. --Slon95 (talk) 18:51, 26 May 2022 (EDT)