What Rifle did Canadians use in Korea?

I think it started out being an M1 Garand, as the Canadians were training closely with the Americans. Their last advanced training stop was Fort Lewis, Washington before heading overseas. Apparently, it wasn't long before England intervened and insisted that Canada be armed the same as the rest of the Commonwealth (much to the chagrin of those who had trained with the Garands.)

Long Branch re-opened and began pumping out No.4 Mk.1*'s after the outbreak of hostilities. I have a nice specimen made in 1950.
 
Canadians used alot of equipment. If you ever see a picture of Canadian troops in Korea, don't be surprised to see just about everything in their hands: Garands, Enfields, Thompsons, Stens. The 1950s seem to be a real awkward time for the world's armies, there was a small explosion in weapons development and new designs imediately following WW2. You name it, Canadians probably used it.
 
A good book that has photos of the variety of weapons used by Canadian troops is "Blood on the Hills: The Canadian Army in the Korean War" by David J. Bercuson. It has an excellent photo that shows a PPCLI soldier holding an M2 carbine in one hand and a Lee Enfield in the other. Some of the other photos show troops holding M2 carbines, Lee Enfields, Stens and an officer with a Thompson submachine gun.

Automatic and semi-automatic weapons were desireable when hordes of commie soldiers came charging up the hill!
 
ebruder said:
Hi,

Google has failed me! Can anyone tell me what the Canadian service rifle was during the Korean war?

Thanks

Eric

anything about canadian forces , you should go to www. canadiansoldiers.com , its states in addition to cgn memebers input above that LE no.5 jungle carbine was also used.
 
Canadian soldiers have been notorious for "picking up" weapons.

for example in WW1 by the time the Ross rifles were officially replaced aproximately 1/4 of Canadians were allready using enfields.

but the official issue was a enfield No4Mk1*
 
woodchopper said:
Canadian soldiers have been notorious for "picking up" weapons.

for example in WW1 by the time the Ross rifles were officially replaced aproximately 1/4 of Canadians were allready using enfields.

but the official issue was a enfield No4Mk1*

There's a great line in George Blackburn's trilogy (Where the Hell are the Guns, The Guns of Normandy, The Guns of Victory) about this. Apparently by the time the got to Holland the Canadians had been liberally incorporating captured German weapons and equipment with such abandon that with "...Canadian soldiers wearing captured German uniforms and shooting captured German weapons that it became very difficult to tell who was who in the dark without a program".

Or words to that effect. I loaned my copies out and never saw'em again :/
 
Still the original LB packing grease.

1950le.jpg
 
rdelliott said:
There's a great line in George Blackburn's trilogy (Where the Hell are the Guns, The Guns of Normandy, The Guns of Victory) about this. Apparently by the time the got to Holland the Canadians had been liberally incorporating captured German weapons and equipment with such abandon that with "...Canadian soldiers wearing captured German uniforms and shooting captured German weapons that it became very difficult to tell who was who in the dark without a program".

Or words to that effect. I loaned my copies out and never saw'em again :/

The Guns of Normandy, what a great book, I got mine given to me. I hope it's not your copy
 
There was an excellent series on the History channel about Canada's involvement in Korea:
http://www.history.ca/microsites/inkorea/default.aspx

They go around to various battlefields (some still semi-intact) with some old PPCLI guys and others and get pretty in depth. Very moving.
Fwiw, in all the footage they showed I saw only enfields, browning high power,water cooled hmgs, etc.

Edit -check out the post count... my head is turning a 360 as we speak
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom