Landing exercise of the Commandotroepen
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The front of the postcard reads: "Landing exercise of the Commandos, Royal (Dutch) Army". Meanwhile, the reverse has two stamps, both of which dating it to 1963.
As for the weapons shown, we see a collection of World War II-era British small arms.
Starting off with the most numerous, we can see four Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifles, all of which appear to be the No. 4 Mark I. Whilst the SMLE had been replaced by the M1 Garand in 1952, the weapon would continue to serve with reservists and the TRIS (Troops in Surinam) until 1963, even serving until 1990 as a training weapon.
Next we can see three Sten submachine guns, more specifically, the Dutch Mark IIA. This consists of nothing more than a British Mark II, with the addition of a foregrip. Indeed, the foregrip is quite visible on the top right Sten.
Furthermore, we have a single Bren gun visible on this photo. Out of all British weapons acquired during World War II, the Bren would serve the longest. Although the weapon was introduced in 1940, some 400 Bren guns would still be assigned to the reserves as late as 1996.
Finally, we have a single British two-inch mortar, also known to Dutch forces as the Mortier van 5 [cm]. Though this weapon was replaced with the American 60mm mortar circa 1952, it remained in use with the TRIS (Troops in Surinam) much later.
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