Rifles to Protect and Defend Our Arctic Sovereignity
My perspective on this thread and its interest in countinuing to arm the Canadian Rangers with the Legendary Long Branch No. 4 Mk I* or its clones IS from Three Vantage Points, myopic and oh-so-shuttered and narrow in scope as they may be..
1) being both a 21st Century Civilian as well as a "one upon a 1950's Time" RCA Army Cadet in the Kenner Collegiate Cadet Corps No 2471 ;
2) my competition participation in the 1998, 2001 and 2002 CFSAC/DCRA NSCC and their respective Service Rifle, Precision Rifle Service Pistol and Practical Pistol Events at the Connaught Ranges.
Each time for my week or more at the Connaught Ranges as I competed in one of more of the events shown above there were on hand anywhere from 40 to 60 or so Canadian Rangers in the 300 or so Cdn Armed Forces-US Army, Australian Army Small Arms Team, Royal Dutch Military Police, Austrian Army, RCMP Competitors;
Who can forget that experience, and some of the "highlights" including in 1998 when I was shooting my own No 4 mK I* 1950 Long Branch in the Service Rifle Match.
For instance there was that Match on that unforgettable Sunday as I recall! It started out when was squadded with a Very Very High Ranking Officer from NDHQ in Ottawa.
He was just shooting the CFSAC Match for one day to it was rumoured" walk the talk".
When we met at the 300 metre firing point he asked me these two questions as an "ice breaker" of sorts:
Question # 1 "Are you a Ranger? Is that why you are using a .303?"
My Answer: No I am not a Ranger..just a Civilian DCRA Competitor"
Question # 2: "Why are you using such an obsolete piece of kit?" or words to that effect. This remark he said while apparently brandishing his shiny C7. I noticed that it had been carried to the firing line and presented to this Very Very High Ranking NDHQ Officer by one of his two Military Aides. They both watched somewhat bemusedly at this verbal exchange about my "obsolete piece of kit".
My Answer: "This No. 4 .303 is much like the one I had at the Kenner Collegiate Cadet Corps (44) years ago. Since it is still issued to the Canadian Rangers, I thought it would be worthwhile it to shoot it today along with them"
Question # 3? Topic switched to weather.
No subsequent comment on my No.4 Mk I* .303 as I shot shoulder to shoulder with the Very Very High Ranking Officer from NDHQ.
But lest I digress there is Vantage Point # 3:
my readings for years of such authors as Lieut John Georges text concerning his some 30 combat action WWII experiences against Japanese turnbolt rifles versus his semi-automatic/full automatic M-1 Carbine rifles. Or Col Rex Applegate or Capt Fairburn along with my current reading for years up until now of the current 2007 daily issues of the New York Times, Globe and Mail, or the National Post.
Let's start with #3 first.
History teaches us that Military Doctrine often adheres to fighting the Last War versus preparing to fight the One to Come.
Shots are not always fired. Indeed in the Cold War of the late 1940s-50's and early 1960s few shots were.
Assured levels of mutual destruction and/or mutual intimidation ensured an uneasy Peace In Our 1950's Dr Strangelove Times.
Our teachers at Kenner told us that our 300 Member Kenner Collegiate Cadet Corps was drilling and drilling in section attacks, setting up operational radio nets, manning Bren Guns or attending rifle matches with our No4 .303s at Camp Borden to "prepare for Military Service in WWIII to come at any time.
The Avro Arrow buzzed our High School at about 200 feet. Its sonic boom shook all the windows.
The Threat Was Real eh! The No, 4 Long Branch .303 was Canada's current DND Service Rifle. Parents of the Cadets had as Korean combatants fought the Korean War with it.
That was 1954; this is 2007. The post here is about continuing to issue this same No. 4 .303 as a Military Arm for the Canadian Rangers in their Arctic Sovereignity Patrols.
A few years ago in 2002 or 2003 the Canadian Rangers has a rifle match at the North Pole with their .303s.
Remember that 1970's film about a Russian submarine aground off the US east Coast entitled "The Russians Are Coming x 2?"
In 21st Century terms the film on hand for 2015 looks like, "The Chinese Are Coming! The Chinese Are Coming!"...China is currently building a NAVY that will eventuall DWARF that of the USN..Not much about it really but it is there..and shall we guess where it plans to sail "eventually" when the Arctic Ice Cap is melted and the Northwest
passage is open?
Need I say "What Maritime Force will we have in place in the Arctic in 2015???
Ever hear of HMCS Labrador..last sailed the Northwest Passage some three decades or so ago..think 1979..The Harper Government it appears is rebuilding her type now.
Could it be that China or Norway or Japan or any number of Nations will exert their Maritime Power to convince Canada to "Share the Wealth of Its Underwater Arctic Resources"???
A Canadian Company Talisman is drilling currently an oil well off Viet Nam..some 4000 feet underwater; Enron is doing the same thing at even greater depths in the Gulf of Mexico..
So do you REALLY think that any number of Rangers on their own skidoos with their 1940's .303s are really sufficient? Or will the planned ONLY four armed ice breakers be enough to "Protect and Defend Canadian Arctic Sovereignity"..
In Toronto in August 2006 I was on board the HMCS Fredericton..it has ONE five inch gun forward...Is it fair to say that any Number of 21st Century Navies will show up "soon" in the Northwest Passage with "slightly bigger guns" or missile arrays"?
Will they really need to fire a shot? On the High Seas..Might Is Right takes on a new dimension...
What would ONE 21st Century Bismarck "Pocket Battleship/Aircraft Carrier" look like?
On board the HMCS Fredericton docked for public view in Toronto in August 2006 I asked one of the crew how long it would take to re-arm the four missile launchers...any "guesses"??
Oh yes then there was that Falklands thang eh!
Thats all for now. Will return to write on #2 and # 1 above.
The larger question here from No #3 is this.
What rifle or small arms do you want a Canadian Ranger tasked with a 2010 Canadian Arctic Sovereignity Patrol to have when in 2010 or will it be 2015 they encounter out on what is left of the Arctic Ice Cap (or is that former US VP Al Goracle just an alarmist?) a geological team from one or more Navies (China? North Korea? Norway? Rwanda?).
On that "day to remember" it may occur that the Foreign Navy in Canadian Waters will NOT accept the challenge to surrender on the spot their covertly acquired (insert one) 1) diamond mine drilling cores; 2) oil well deposit finds or 3) will feel provoked or "found out" on what that Foreign Navy asserts is THEIR TURF.
Sunsequently any resemblance to persons living or dead as well as what action went down RN Navy versus Iranian Navy today in the Persian Gulf is "purely coincidental".
In in the "unlikely event 1000 to 1 shot heard round the world" that the Foreign Navy Force RESISTS the Canadian Arctic Sovereignity Patrol with either the threat or the use of deadly force what then eh?
Maybe they are tired of being cooped up aboard ship for a month and just when they get out in the fresh air the Canadian Rangers show up armed with their trusty .303s.
The Foreign Navy's up until then clandestine and totally unopposed geological exploration works will now be reported to the international community and even back to Ottawa and the Hill where Deputy PM Michael Ignatieff is waiting for a call...any call!
Or maybe no shots will ever be fired, yet is it fair to say a very similar scenario was what happened today on March 23rd , 2007.
No fiction here as to what was acted out in the Persian Gulf today in the RN Navy Avon Raft Force Versus Iranian Armed Cruisers.
Lets suppose that sometime in the future..a Canadian Ranger Sovereignity Patrol is taken prisoner, disarmed and made to board the Foreign Submarine...a little like what happened TODAY to fifteen Royal Navy Sailors and Marines in the Persian Gulf,..now prisoners of the Iranian Navy eh!
Okeh..what is the likelihood of unidentified submarines "just showing up" in our Arctic waters?
Why we have all those Canadian Rangers on the ice with their trusty .303s and some unmanned aerial surveillance at -40 Celsius..how could they escape detection???
At CFSAC 2001 I talked one evening in the Connaught Range tent lines to one Inuit Canadian Ranger who informed me that when he was offshore a hundred or more miles he found signs of large encampments or where "somebody's rather large submarine" had surfaced..
The Inuit Canadian Ranger also spoke of seeing the submerged hulk of partially submerged submarine pass in front of his skidoo complete with its Canadian Ranger issued .303.
A few hundred yards off he witnessed it plow its half submerged hydraulic wave path just under the ice surface, throwing up the ice broken and disrupted...
I think its called periscope depth eh!
He also informed me that he WISHED he could shoot a pistol in CFSAC but that the "authorities" wouldnt let him have one..Another Canadian Ranger came to the Service and Practical Pistol Match Competitions and WATCHED me shoot..he told me he couldnt get a pistol either..
So what if sometime in the not too distant future (okeh not until 2050 eh!) a certain up until then UNKNOWN FOREIGN SUB (Cue the film the Chinese or North Koreans or Norwegians etc etc Are Comimg!) surfaces just up ahead from a Canadian Ranger Arctic Sovereignity Patrol.
Immediatelt the subs boarding or exploration party comes out and appears to be ARMED...NOT that that would ever happen in the 21st Century of Global Warming and the accompanying oh-so-desparate search for any and all resources...oil..gas..uranium..nickel...such a long list and so many Nations eager to prosper...
Why it is an unlikely as some Company like RIM issuing predated stock options or Nortel's books being out of line or...well you know!!
Why it is as unlikely as some country like Iran using its Navy to capture, disarm and hold as their prisoners some Royal Navy Sailors and RN Marines on a security patrol in the Persian Gulf!
Unthinkable!! Science Fiction 100%!!
Will that oh-so-fictional 2010 or 2015 unknown foreign submarine boarding party wayyyy up in our Arctic waters just stay away with all that deterrent firepower presented towards their conning tower by one of our is it fair to say "not too heavily armed" Canadian Arctic Sovereignity Patrols...most especially when their Chinese pr North Korean or Rwanda or Cuban Intelligence Service has found out that the Canadian Ranger Arctic Sovereignity Patrols are equipped with newly manufactured .303 ammo.?
Hmmm the phrase> "Fighting Chance" comes to mind...otherwise do the Canadian Sovereignity Patrol Members just call back on their satellite phones as they face others who will come not prepared to follow "Marquis of Queensbuy Rules"..i.e bring turnbolt rifles to face off against the Canadian Rangers turnbolt rifles..
When you are out on the High Seas it is indeed a "Risky Business" patrolling as our Canadian Rangers do..on a skidoo or in open boats in the summer or on land in a coastal watch.
On my revisiting this post a day after I started it I am reminded that "Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction"..like my 100% fictional 2011 scenarios here.
For example, today March 23rd, 2007 some fifteen Royal Navy Sailors and Marines in their fully armed Avon Raft patrol from the HMS Cornwall were seized, disarmed and taken prisoner by Iranian Naval Forces.
Taken at gunpoint eh!
Is it fair to say that it does look like the Iran Navy or it Iranian Government doesnt mind the possibility of a War with the UK.
Think that the Royal Marines and Royal Navy Sailors just surrendered meekly? That none of them put up any resistance whatsoever or thought of shooting it out at the "Moment of Truth"...
"You are completely outgunned and outnumbered. Lay down your arms and surrender now or be fired upon"..
March 23rd, 2007: Reality
The CBC web page announces that "The British Government is adamnant that its (captured, disarmed and taken as prisoners fiftteen Royal Navy Marines and RN )Sailors were in Iraqui territorial waters not in Iranian waters.."
Hmm you gotta wonder what kinda armament those Royal Marines and Royal Naval Boarding Party Members were carrying...when they were disarmed on the high seas...do you really think that they are still carrying No 4 Mk I* .303s?
Also do you think you would want to be taken prisoner in such a manner?
Stay tuned for CNN pictures of the RN captives...
Hopefully the Opposition Liberals led by apology demanding Opposition Stephan Dion will take as MUCH INTEREST in the fifteen missing Royal Navy Sailors captured by Iranian Forces todayas he did this week concerning four missing Taliban.
Just watch for him to do this in the coming week or so in the House of Commons!
On to March 23rd, 2011: Reader Discretion Advised! PURE FICTION EH
The CBC web page announces:
Today the Rest of Canada (ROC) Government is adamnant that its ROC Rangers who have been apparently captured disarmed and taken as prisoners on board a (insert name of Country) Submarine in Arctic Waters were in fact abducted in Canadian Arctic Territorial Waters.
No trace of the ROC Rangers has been found as the (insert name of Foreign Country) Submarine remains submerged in the deep.
PM Stephen Dion speaking for the ROC Nation, which has been called the Rest of Canada since Quebec Sovereignity was declared in January 2008 ,said in New York that both UN and NATO Forces should find the unknown foreign submarine that had apparently captured and abducted the fifteen Rest of Canada-Canadian Rangers.
PM Dion said that "It is just not fair to ROC" as a major theme of his UN speech.
Conservative Opposition Leader MP John Baird said that PM Dion "just didnt get the job done" in properly equipping the Rest of Canada-Canadian Ranger Sovereignity Patrols.
Premier Andre Dumont of Sovereign Quebec echoed PM Dion's statements but allowed that Sovereign Quebec would not use its nuclear submarine fleet recently acquired from France to aid in the search for the MIA Rest of Canada-Canadian Rangers.
Their skidoos and smashed up No 4 Rifles were found abandoned on the little patch of Arctic ice cap that is now left since Global Warming has accelerated just as the now US President predicted back in 2006.
US President Al Gore declined comment on the high seas seizure of the Rest of Canada Canadian Ranger Patrol and its fifteen missing members. He said the USA was too busy in its Iraq Civil War to help the Rest of Canada surface patrol vessels.
The Rest of Canada submarine fleet, including the HMCS Victoria are encountering operational difficulties in entering the Arctic waters in question as a Chinese Naval Blockade at a disputed oil well area is keeping them back..
This is the end of CBC news for March 23rd, 2011.
Reader should note this.
No Rest of Canada-Canadian Rangers were ever harmed in this high seas fictional abduction by foreign submarine.
Eventually the ROC Rangers' release was obtained by Foreign Minisiter Mahar Arar for the Rest of Canada-Canadian Government.
All the abducted ROC Rangers were given new skidoos and reissued No 4 Mk I* .303s with new and improved armor piercing bullets for their Arctic Sovereignity Patrols in fictional 2012. And is it fair to say that just as in the movies everyone lived happily ever after in the Rest of Canada and Sovereign Quebec (Estd 1648-2008)
IF we are going to continue to task Canadian Rangers with Arctic Sovereignity Patrols in the 21st Century, lets arm them as well as some other forces drawn from the local populace as is seen in other parts of the World.
For example the Afghanistan Police being trained by Spain and Germany at the present time.
A picture of the Afghanistan Police recruits is in the March 22nd issue of the National Post opposite the Editorial Page.
"Yes Virginia..they are practising their marksmanship with a 30 round magazine with an AK-47 equipped with a folding stock and a pistol grip".
"Yes Virginia..I do know all about how such arms are prohibited in Canada for Civilians"...but then I do remember shooting at DCRA NSCC in 1970 at the Connaught Ranges one of those C1A1s that this thread mentions so many times are being destroyed or are "out of the question" to issue to the Canadian Rangers..
And at the risk of a Real Historic Anarchronism..dare to even think that the Kenner Collegiate Cadet Corps stood ready in 1956 to defend Canada's Soverrignity along Hwy 7 with four fully operational Bren Guns, along with a few dozen of Canadas Current 1956 Service Rifle of that time..the Long Branch No. 4 Mk I* with rumours of a "new rifle" in .308 to be issued to the 50th M.A.A. ..
The No. 4 Mk I ..303.. a great rifle for its Time...
The Question Is This. What TIME are we in NOW???
the ole LE is a hard act to follow
