Was the ross used in military service by any countries post 1945? I have read they were used by the dutch in the east indies as well as by The Haganah in the 1947–1949 Palestine war but I have no references for either to substantiate.
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Was the ross used in military service by any countries post 1945? I have read they were used by the dutch in the east indies as well as by The Haganah in the 1947–1949 Palestine war but I have no references for either to substantiate.
Have never seen any such reference myself. By that time China had plenty of small arms, the Balts were "back in the USSR", and India? They went to a lot of trouble to DP a lot of Rosses, but did they ever use them?
As long as the WWI generation or their children lived the Ross name was mostly mud. Even people who hardly knew a rifle from an umbrella had opinions about it as I recall. The facts were less available and no one much wanted to hear them anyway.
There were apparently quite a few men who had actually fought with them in France and had very different opinions, but societies were not much more fond of "dissenting opinions" then than they are now.
Information that is apparently contradictory merely irritates most people as it obstructs their forming an opinion in the customary matter of seconds! ;)
Saw a reference that the Ross was still on issue to the Canadian Parks service as late as 1970.
Yes it was. This was provincial and not federal.
I bought several from the Alberta Government Surplus Division on 104 ave and and around 118 street .
They had been shortened, sporterized and were being sold off as they finally got 94 Winchesters
I still have one around here...someplace
Does that bring back memories !!!!
Can you recall where you saw the info on the Haganah and Dutch East Indies? With a No.1 Mk.V turning up with the Viet Cong surely almost anything is possible!
Cut down Ross Mk.IIIs were used by the Veteran Guards at important facilities and PoW camps here in Canada IIRC. There is a photo of a vet on the gate at REL with a cut down Mk.III.
The references I saw were on Wikipedia of all places (without a citation) hence my apprehension regarding its accuracy.
Do you have any of the photos with the Ross post WW2 in the scenarios you mentioned?
There were a few articles some years ago concerning the Ross rifles modified by the Russians and used in the 1956 Olympics. Some question as
to the caliber, either 6,3x54r or standard 7,62x54r. Main use in the Olympics was the running deer event
I have a photo of my Great Uncle Kingsley at Chatham Basic Training Camp during WW2 in uniform with a Ross Mk.II. He was an NCO and taught vehicle mechanics there during the war.
I have not seen any post-WWII. I have heard from what I consider a reliable sources that a great number of older small arms were smelted after WWII. There are reports of rifles being stacked and burned before the metal parts were sent for scrap.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob
Or just simply dumped in the ocean, this was done for milsurps and ammo of all sorts because it was cheaper to do that in some cases than to surplus it even.Quote:
Originally Posted by Surpmil
I guess one possible post 1945 use of the Ross Rifle was the ones that were in service on the Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre. It appears that ship was used till the mid 1950s and then sold for scrap in 1959. I believe the Chilean Ross Rifles started to show up after then.
The German Dealer who sold the Chilean rifles bought 30 of them from their Government in 1969.
I was wondering when they were sold out of Chilean service. I would guess then that they must have sat in storage for awhile since the Almirante Latorre was sold for scrap in 1959.
The Chilean Ross rifles appeared on the surplus market in the 1970s at the same time as the Chile Mausers.
According to "The Ross Rifle Story" pre, 'tween, and post the wars the list of countries that ended up with Ross Rifles is long and glorious: China, Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Spain, New Zealand, Holland, Norway, Finland, Indonesia, India, Chile, United States, Britain, and of course, Canada where the Ross served as a security weapon in penitentiaries and with the Canadian Park Warden's Service until the Sixties.. That doesn't include the 200 odd Ross Rifles that ended up being dumped in Cromarty Firth by the police and the one used to shoot an elephant gone berserk in Fort Worth, Texas on July 12, 1940.