As the Second World War loomed, a need to update the venerable Lee Enfield rifle in British service saw the design modernized into the new #4 Rifle, with a series of improvements on the same core principals.

The iconic standard issue rifle of the United States during the Second World War, famously deemed by no less a figure than General George Patton as “The Greatest Implement of Battle Ever Devised”.

The French MAS36 was intended as a stopgap until a suitable semi-automatic rifle could be developed, but this was not to be. The Fall of France in 1940 led to it being the final rifle adopted by the Third Republic, as well as the last bolt action rifle standardized by a major power.

The Japanese Type 99 rifle was intended to replace the Type 38 as the standard issue weapon to the Imperial Japanese Military during World War Two, but was never able to supplant its older brother.