REL production reports.

[stencollector]

I was submitting some various information with regard to REL no32 telescope production in the Canadian sniper thread up in the stickies. However, I realized that without a chronological posting of the information, it was getting quite confusing. So I will post photos of snippets from their quarterly production summaries, many of which mention the progress in no32 telescope production.

I got these in conversation with an advanced binocular collector. We were discussing something else entirely when the topic of sighting telescopes came up (I was more concerned with finding an REL no41 scope for my 25 pdr) and when he sent me a copy of the summary, I realized it also included data on the no32 scopes, which will be of interest to some of us.

Here is a copy of an interesting page that for some reason shows SAL rifle production in 1941, then in each quarter up until end of December, 1943. It also shows the disposition of the rifles up to that point.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[stencollector]

Now to the original meaning of this thread, here are some of the summaries, hopefully in chronological order.

These are June 1941, Dec 41, Mar 42, and Mar42

[stencollector]

Jun 30 1942, Jun30 1943, September 1943, Mar 1944

[stencollector]

A pair from Dec 44, and a couple from Dec 31 1945

[stencollector]

Now much of the above may not interest the average collector, but to those who have the LB snipers, there is some of the elusive information on these rarities. There will be conflicts between these reports and perhaps the reports of LongBranch, but in the end it is one department's report against anothers.

I don't have a copy from the report, byt Frank sent me this regarding post war outstanding orders:

Outstanding Contract Balances at Dec. 31, 1945". The only references to Telescopes, Sighting in this listing are:

Telescopes Sighting Mod.E, Quantity - 350
Conversion of 51--32 Mk. I Telescopes to 32 Mk. IA and Spare Parts, Quantity- Balance to be Cancelled

I suspect that the model E scopes will be the no32mk3 scope, which will be the 5th production model of telescope by REL in the sniper series.
One thing that is clear is that rifle telescope production, expected to be 20 telescopes per week, did not meet those expectations.

[Surpmil]

Well, you've answered a bunch of questions right here stencollector that we've guessed at for a long time!

What an amazing variety of production; we can't even begin to guess at the technical difficulties that were overcome. No wonder Research Enterprises Ltd. had over 7000 employees at the end.

[edited]

Is that document in private or public hands and what is it titled please?

Anyone know what "WSL Account" refers to?

[Lee Enfield]

The acceptance and distribution of 165 sniping rifles from small arms limited by Dec31,1943 is interesting.

I suppose that some of them may have not been no4 rifles??

[stencollector]

I believe they are only talking about no4 rifles in that section.

I just got a bunch of the minutes from the REL instrument committee. Lots of new and interesting information there. Not sure how to post these....I may have to type each one out as they are fairly blurred, so it may be a while before I post them.

I have asked Frank if the documents are from private or public collections. Frank is writing a book on Canadian Binoculars, so the last thing I want to do is release any of the material as it pertains to the binoculars, and steal his thunder.

[Surpmil]

If you can read them to type them out, we can read them too!

Great stuff, thank you for sharing it and thanks to Frank too.

[Warren]

This will fit into some of the documents I am working on from my reels of fiche
Since most REL documents got destroyed in the early 50's the documents shown here are a real treasure trove.
REL was a WW II cutting edge technology company and made items that were almost dreams in their day.
From absolutely zero, REL rivaled both the Germans and British for quality in optics in less than two years......