Two data points: I have to add is the source of the Danish M53 rifle (M1917 rifles) was Canadaicon. The Canadians bought ~100,000 from the US of A in June~July 1940 to replace all of the No1 and Ross rifles they sent over to the UKicon (about 75,000 of each). The Danish arm records show they got their rifles from Canada, presumably in 1953. Denmarkicon also bought a batch of these rifles from Norwayicon in 1958, if my memory serves me correctly. I do not know the source of those rifles, they could have come from the UK, the US or Canada. If someone is really interested I can go pull up the data from research notes, I have it is some file someplace.

The other data point I have is a discussion with a fellow whose father had joined the Bundeswehr in 1955, just at the time it was set up. According to this fellow, their first training rifles were Canadian No 4 rifles. His father was surprised by this, as the Grenzeschuzte, which were effectively light infantry, had Kar98K rifles and MG42 MGs, along with Italianicon MP38/42’s, they pretty much looked like WWII Germanicon infantry. I do not recall all the exact details, but I seem to recall that he said their initial training equipment was all Canadian, including the uniforms, but with US pattern steel pots. I seem to recall him saying, but am not sure if this is correct, that the NCOs were also Canadian, or at least the German ones were supervised by Canadians.

His comments were this had to be because none of the old time NCO’s from WWII would rejoin. The Officers might rejoin, but the men who had had to fight and die had had enough, so the new German army had to pretty much start from scratch on building an NCO corps.

The rifles were changed out pretty quickly, with what I do not recall; I think it was M1icon rifles and M1 carbines in 1956, about the time they got their own real equipment.