The Ross Rifle
The .303 caliber Ross rifle was originally adopted as a replacement for the British Lee Enfield during the Boer war, as the English refused to license Enfield production to Canadians. The Ross proved useful in such a conflict, and was issued to the North West Mounted Police in 1903 and was given to the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914. The straight pull action was excellent for sport shooting, but at the second battle of Ypres in 1915, it became apparent that it was no battle rifle. Once any sizeable amount of mud got into the action it would seize up and become un-firable. This led to the CEF adopting the British Lee Enfield No. 1 Mk. 3 rifle in 1916.
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The Lee Enfield No 1. Mk. 3/Mk. 3*
The Short Magazine Lee Enfield No 1 Mk 3, or SMLE, was pt into service by the British army at the turn of the century following the Boer war. The army was in the process of phasing it out and replacing it with the Pattern 14 rifle when they were forced to go to war again. There was no time to re-arm, and they had to make do with their stock of SMLE rifles. To the utmost suprise of the higher ups, the SMLE proved an exquisite rifle for trench warfare. The SMLE was durable and accurate, but most of all, the action was smooth and fast, allowing for the famous "mad minute", where British soldiers could amount to roughly 30 hits on a 12 square inch target at 300 yards in less than a minute.
Following the failure of the Ross Rifle in the trenches, the CEF adopted the SMLE Mk. 3* in 1916, which had been stripped of its volley sights and magazine cut off for production purposes. The Lee Enfield would remain unchanged until 1942, with the release of the No. 4 Mk. 1. |
The Webley Revolver
The Webley revolver was the primary side arm used by officers and certain enlisted men of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the great war. Officers started the war carrying these pistols in conjunction with a sword or saber. As the war progressed they moved to carrying rifles like enlisted men to make themselves less of targets. With the evolution of raiding, minimal equipment became priority, so raiding parties would often carry revolvers with a small bayonet fixed. As well as raiders, machine gun teams would have carried them as a light weight weapon for close quarters combat should the need arise.
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