Australian use of old Ross sniper rifles in WWII??

[Surpmil]

According to documents examined by Clive Law, after Dunkirk an urgent request was made to Canada for Ross rifles fitted with scopes. The reply was sent back that there were none available. Obviously the reputation of the Ross for accuracy was remembered, even it if always denigrated officially as a service rifle. The same book "Without Warning" documents how the remaining WWI Ross/Warner & Swasey units were used for training in Canada for several years, presumably until sufficient No4(T)s became available; that is except for either 80 or 150 presumably loose W&S scopes which were taken to the UK by the 1st Canadian Division and fitted to P14s. Seems doubtful that any would have made it to the SW Pacific unless they did so after 1943, as we know the P14 W&S was still in service with the Canadians in Italy that year. However, it is possible that rifles became available as the No4(T) replaced them in Canadian units I suppose. Whether anyone would have taken the trouble to send them out to New Guinea I don't know, but I rather doubt it. Still, someone took the trouble to send some Alex Martin P14s to the Med in 1941 where Tom Barker was issued one on his way to Crete, and no one else in his battalion was, so one never knows!

There is another account in a book called "Not as a Duty Only" by an Australian officer on loan to a British regiment in NW Europe in 1944 in which he mentions two snipers in his regiment using "Canadian Ross rifles" and taking out a German officer at 1000 yards as measured by range finder. I suspect these were P14s, but we may never know for sure.

If anyone in Australia can track down the author who name I forget, they might be able to nail down the story. I wrote years and years ago to the publisher but never got a reply.