Ross M10 Rifle DISCHARGER, SMOKE GENERATOR 4-INCH

I recently acquired one of these WWII devices in Canada and would like to know of other surviving examples and history on these. Some were made using cut down Lee-Enfield rifles, and some were made from Ross rifles. This one was a Ross M-10 (Mark III). They were reportedly used on Universal Carriers MK. I, armoured cars, tanks etc. This early version (No. 2. MK.I) was mounted on the exterior of the hull or turret. They could be fired from inside using a cable hooked up to the special trigger. A special bulletless cartridge would then be fired to launch the smoke generator can. The armoured vehicle could then retreat, manoeuvre or advance under cover of the smoke.

I suspect that this is quite a scarce variant of the Ross Rifle. I look forward to hearing from those more knowledgeable about these.

The pity is some or all of them seem to have been made from brand new MkIIIs. There is some coverage of them in The Ross Rifle Story.

This Discharger has now gone into the collection of a friend in Burnaby, BC, Canada, whose uncle served on Canadian General Motors built Otter Reconnaissance Cars with the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards (PLDG) in WWII. The Otter mounted a Discharger front and centre at the brow of the hull. The uncle was a crew member in one that was knocked out by the Germans in Italy and he was taken prisoner. There are a couple of well known photos of those knocked out PLDG vehicles. We do not know the name of the Otter that the uncle was in. One of these PLDG Otters was named by its crew "BYTOWN".

Which as you know I'm sure is the old name for Ottawa due to it having been laid out in whole or in part by a officer of the R.E. named By, who coincidentally had something to do with laying out the RSAF at Enfield as well.