Museum's inventory: Ross smoke bomb launcher

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dauph197

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Hi Guys,

I have no idea of what it is. It looks like a grenade launcher but may be something else. I hope you guys, will bring some more leads or answer in order to find what it is. It was surely used on a vehicle but which one. I would like to add more details about this item.

This beast weight almost 30-35 pounds.

It is time for comments...







Impossible to see on the picture. There is a ''P'' with the Broad Arrow stamped at the bottom of the tube.























 
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It is a smoke bomb launcher for mounting on armoured vehicles. They were also made on LE actions.
 
Great! Thanks for the picture. If any of you have some other pictures like that, feel free to share them on this thread!

Martin
 
Used on/in the 1944 Universal/Bren Gun Carriers, like so:

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/sale-1944-ford-t-16-universal-carrier.html

You can see it mounted in the bottom left of this image:

finnished-002.jpg
 
Here we see a similar L-E based discharger on a Light Tank Mk.VI in the desert in Dec. 1940. The major must have been very cold to let himself be photographed looking like this. His Leica, removed from its leather case, is probably taking the photograph.

standard.jpg
 
The one shown by the original poster seems to be missing it's safety pin and chain on the remote trigger. On some armoured vehicles they could also be installed where they did not need to be remotely fired, but rather fired directly off the trigger.

As an aside, they are in the FRT as a prohibited weapon, due to the shortened barrel. Mine has been modified so it will not chamber or discharge a live round, however it can still fire off a blank or a ballistite.

Here is a shot of the smoke discharger on my mk1 carrier.
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Think we had a whole thread on these things here, not so long ago. Grizz
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That we did and we might have discussed the use of the Ross MkIII perhaps being due to its ability to stand just about any load you can cram in the case, and the question of whether a specially "hot" round was made up for driving those big smoke bombs.

Looks like at least 1400 newish Ross MkIII's were butchered in the process.:(
 
RRCo. said:
That we did and we might have discussed the use of the Ross MkIII perhaps being due to its ability to stand just about any load you can cram in the case, and the question of whether a specially "hot" round was made up for driving those big smoke bombs.

Looks like at least 1400 newish Ross MkIII's were butchered in the process.:(
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I have had about half a dozen or so of these pass over my workbench, all of the Ross variety. It seemed almost every one suffered from slightly bent receivers, making the bolt very hard to pull back. I am not sure what the cause was, or if it was common to these type of launches.
 
Does anyone have a picture of a dummy smoke bomb and the proper designation for it? That is a huge smoke bomb!!

Thanks.

Martin
 
Generator, smoke, no8mkIV. The cartridges look like the regular ballistite cartridges to me.
The Mk 4 had a steel body and was 4 inches in diameter and 4 inches high. It was filled with priming, igniting and smoke composition with a total explosive filling of about 3 1/2 Lb. A hole in the top was covered with a cellulose acetate disc, presumably for waterproofing. For use the disc was pierced and a 6 inch length of safety fuze (Fuze Safety No 11 Mk 2) was inserted and lit with a Match Fuzee. The safety fuze burned for about 15 seconds and the priming composition for a further 5 seconds before passing the flame to the igniting composition and from that to the smoke composition.
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stencollector said:
I have had about half a dozen or so of these pass over my workbench, all of the Ross variety. It seemed almost every one suffered from slightly bent receivers, making the bolt very hard to pull back. I am not sure what the cause was, or if it was common to these type of launches.
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What do you think caused that damage? I assume you mean the bolt guide rails were bent? Up or down?
 
Thanks for the picture stencollector, I appreciate.

I hope I'll be able to find all the missing bolts so I should try the smoke-launcher to see if it's the same thing.

Martin
 
Nice Ross smoke launcher! Looks like a decent example.

Another historic firearm with ruined value because of our dumb 12.6 laws. I bet a lot of these are still out there unregistered because some owners don't know they're 'prohib' because of that 'dangerous' barrel length.

-Steve
 
Steve1987 said:
Nice Ross smoke launcher! Looks like a decent example.

Another historic firearm with ruined value because of our dumb 12.6 laws. I bet a lot of these are still out there unregistered because some owners don't know they're 'prohib' because of that 'dangerous' barrel length.

-Steve
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i find it odd that these are prohib but the cooey carcanos are not
 
Why would the Cooey Carcano be a prohib.They more than fit into our interpretations of a non restricted rifle. On the other hand the Ross smoke grenade launcher with it's evil 4" barrel has been in the news every day.Mayhem and Havoc wherever it goes. Just google Ross grenade Launcher and see how many news stories over the last 70 years have detailed it's reign of terror over our fellow Liberal countrymen.
 
mr.e moose said:
Why would the Cooey Carcano be a prohib.They more than fit into our interpretations of a non restricted rifle. On the other hand the Ross smoke grenade launcher with it's evil 4" barrel has been in the news every day.Mayhem and Havoc wherever it goes. Just google Ross grenade Launcher and see how many news stories over the last 70 years have detailed it's reign of terror over our fellow Liberal countrymen.
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im thinking of the cut down barrel stub in the cooey used to attach a new barrel
besides, im sure the t-shirt that killed maude flanders was launched from one of these
 
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