But would the SAS need official approval to fit a limited number of Thompsons with bayonets, perhaps at a local level? After all they made all manner of modifications to Jeeps for use in North Africa and elsewhere and I doubt that they asked Willys or anyone else first for permission before proceeding.
I was reading that Thompson was trying to come up with ways to increase sales of the rifle and in 1923 printed a catalog with the bayonet mount, along with other rifles with other modifications. Word is no more than 10-20 total were converted to all modified types so only a couple would have ended up with a bayonet mount.
I guess an important question would be why would the SAS want a bayonet on the Thompson when no one else did.
I'm reliably told that the book "The Canadian Bayonet by R. Barrie Manarey (1971 Century Press) also states that the SAS used the Ross bayonet with the Thompson. I don't currently have this book but because it sounds an interesting book and there was just 1 copy available, this evening, on Amazon U.K., I purchased the book.
That is what "The Canadian Bayonet" says but it is a pioneering work and contains several errors.
Like some of the Garand books that people quote from time to time and the rest of us know are wrong. Some just blunder along blindly, unable to hear...Quote:
Originally Posted by green
But unless you served with the SAS during WW2 and were posted to North Africa and other places where the SAS saw active service, I don't know how you can say for sure that the Ross bayonet was defiantly never used in conjunction with the Thompson SMG, Jim. I hadn't realised that you were old enough to have seen action during WW2, Jim.Quote:
Originally Posted by browningautorifle
F-10...... Come a bit closer as I don't want everyone to read this. Everyone on this forum has read books that have later been found to be incorrect. Indeed, I've written some! And, dare I say it, books on small arms are the worst offenders. We have all seen those '....Big Boys Bumper Bedside Book of Pistols, - or Rifles - or Machine guns, - or VW cars...... You know the sort. Yep, the sort that you read past the third page just out of sheer curiosity, to see what the author is going to say next. You MUST accept that authors are not infallible. And let this be a lesson for when you author your next book, you don't do what many do. That is a) Plagerise others, because you just copy their mistakes and b) don't read 6 books to write book 7 and c) but do ACCEPT THE WISDOM OF THE CROWD.
In regards to this thread, what you REALLY ought to do is to find archival or documentary or photographic or real evidence that this impossible* event really did take place.
* due to the mechanics of both
In the as for now definitive book on Commonwealth bayonets a Ross modded for the TSMG is not mentioned.
There is a photo that has been around for many years showing a US M1892 Krag bayonet mounted on a Thompson. That is the only bayonet I've ever seen connected to the Thompson, and it is very likely that the one in the photo is the only one made. This topic was discussed here several years ago:
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=16882
Quote:
Originally Posted by browningautorifle
I restate the obvious and never did say the latter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
That one we're familiar with.Quote:
Originally Posted by porterkids