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Originally Posted by btimbit
I bought a 107 year old Ross Rifle today. Just in time for Remembrance day I can't imagine being a 20 year old holding this thing in Ypres. Terrifying.
Very happy to own a neat piece of Canadian history
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Amazing, you own a piece of historical ####.
I can't think of a better example of how successive Canadian governments have treated their military than the Ross rifle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle...heners%27_Wood
Fighting 10th lead the way.
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At Kitcheners' Wood, the 10th Battalion, CEF of the 2nd Canadian Brigade was ordered to counter-attack into the gap created by the gas attack; they formed up after 11:00pm on the night of 22 April. The 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) of the 3rd Canadian Brigade arrived as they were forming, tasked to support the advance. Both battalions had over 800 men, formed up in waves of two companies each. The order to advance was given at 11:46pm. The leading waves of the 10th Battalion covered half the distance from the start line to the Wood, running into a strong hedge interlaced with wire. No reconnaissance had been done prior and the battalion was forced to break through the obstacle with rifle butts, while taking fire from German machine guns about 200 yards away. Both battalions charged the last 200 yards to the wood, threw the Germans out, and suffered more than 75 percent casualties. Small parties of French troops, eager to reclaim the French guns that had been abandoned in the wood, had also participated in the battle.
After the war, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Allied Supreme Commander, remarked that the "greatest act of the war" had been the assault on Kitcheners' Wood by the 10th and 16th Battalions.
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The 1st Division as a whole suffered some 60% casualties before being relieved, and the 10th and 16th Battalions were reduced to less than 20% of their pre-battle strength.
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