Das Tagebuch Murnaus

I loved to tell this story, about how the Canadian Rangers were issued an old Lee-Enfield bolt action rifle on joining and would get 300 rounds of ammunition for it per year for as long as they served. Not any more...

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Canadian Rangers to replace storied Lee-Enfield rifles

By David Pugliese, Postmedia News August 1, 2011

After more than 60 years of carrying the venerable Lee-Enfield rifle, those who form Canada's first line of defence in the Arctic are getting new guns [ahem, rifles - "guns" have tripods or wheels].

If all goes well, the Canadian Rangers will receive their new rifles before the end of 2014, Canadian Forces officers said.

The Rangers, a sub-component of the Canadian Forces Reserve, patrol remote parts of the North and other isolated areas of Canada.

Since they were formed in 1947, the Rangers have been using the bolt-action Lee-Enfield rifle.

``While the Lee-Enfield is still an excellent weapon and meets the Rangers' requirements, there is difficulty in obtaining spare parts,'' said Forces spokesman Maj. Martell Thompson.

For the last two decades the military has been maintaining the rifles from spare parts taken from other Lee-Enfields.

Although the Canadian Forces are several years away from a shortage of parts, the number of spare components is becoming limited, Thompson pointed out.

At the time the .303-calibre Lee-Enfield was issued to the Rangers, it was the standard service rifle of the Canadian army.

[snip]

Thompson said after consulting with the Rangers, it was agreed that the new rifle would be in the 7.62mm/ .308 Winchester calibre, as this was best suited to meet the Rangers' requirements. He noted that ``.308 Winchester refers to a specific cartridge that is very similar to the 7.62 x 51 (NATO) cartridge, and is made by several companies.''

The military is in the process of expanding the Ranger force to around 5,000.

Maj. Bruce Gilchrist, the army's project director for small arms, said the plan to replace the Lee-Enfield would see 10,000 new rifles being bought. That amount should cover the need to supply or replace rifles over the next 30 years. Some other units might also want to use the new rifle once it is introduced, he added.

The replacement of the Ranger rifle is one of the items covered under the military's small arms modernization project which is working its way toward government approval. ``If all continues as presently planned the Rangers should see their first rifles before mid-winter in 2014,'' Gilchrist noted.

The small arms project is aiming for government approval in the summer of 2012.

The number of Rangers has increased to around 4,700, up from 4,100 in 2007. The number of Ranger formations, called patrols, went from 161 to 173.

Many Rangers are Aboriginal. They protect Canada's sovereignty by reporting unusual activities or sightings, collecting local data of significance to the Canadian Forces, and conducting surveillance or sovereignty patrols as required, according to the military.

Their mission is ``to provide lightly equipped, self-sufficient, mobile forces in support of the CF's sovereignty and domestic operation tasks in Canada.''

The Canadian army's headquarters authorized the first two Ranger companies in September 1947.

New patrols have been established at Faro in the Yukon Territory, Hay River in the Northwest Territories, Fort Nelson in British Columbia, Eabametoong, Kasabonica and Kingfisher in Ontario, Chisasibi and Iles-De-La-Madeleine in Quebec, and Hamilton in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to the government.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay recently met with the Rangers ahead of a major, annual Arctic sovereignty operation.

He presented members of the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group with Canadian Forces Decoration medals in recognition of their 12 years of good and loyal service.

Members of the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group will take part in Operation Nanook, the Canadian Forces' annual northern training exercise. That starts on Aug. 8 and runs for two weeks.

Ottawa Citizen

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

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The Lee-Enfield was and is a remarkable weapon. Examples dating from the First World War in good condition have been taken from captured Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan or found in weapons caches.

I wasn't gonna say anything but:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/09/25/guards-return.html

The Canadian Border Security Agency says it will take ten years to train and equip every officer with a sidearm. The first two years will cost $101 million (http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/agency/security-securite/questions-e.html).

Conspicuous by its absence is any reportage of the number of Canadian border guards who have been shot by desperadoes raging to hop the line into the Great White North. That's because there haven't been any: among the 730 names in the Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial Honour Roll, going back to 1804, there are only four entries for customs officers: one in 1980 (no one seems to know how he died, but a boardroom in the Customs Excise Union building is named after him) and three in 1994 (two drowned in a flood, and one was killed when a drunk driver hit her car).

I am not convinced this is a good idea, when I cross the border and look at the college students doing their summer term with CBSA, asking me about where I've been and do I have any cigarettes.

It kind of reminds me of the late 1980s when I was working in Ottawa, around Parliament Hill and the Governor-General's residence. The RCMP was tasked with a lot of public security duties and as usual was very short-staffed. So, they hired 3-400 "Special Constables" who mostly did airport security, VIP security, and institutional security at Parliament Hill and the residences of the Prime Minister and G-G.

They all had sidearms and many of them were armed with the Heckler and Koch MP-5 9mm submachine gun, a short-barreled compact weapon then used by many SWAT and counter-terrorist units. These were taken away from them within two years, because of the many instances of SCs shooting themselves in the foot or leg with them!