That damn old Ross rifle

First World War Audio Archive

That damn old Ross rifle

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Transcript

Went to Bramshott camp in England. That’s where we were from March until August of 1916. And we moved from the camp we were in at Bramshott, they moved us over to a camp called Shorncliffe, that’s on the coast of England, you know. And over there we took our driving and riding training there. It was British, British barracks was there. And then we took our target practice and that on the range, just there at Hyaths, place called Hyaths, right in Folkston. That’s where we learned to shoot, using that damn old Ross rifle that we got. It was an awful rifle, it was bigger than me! And I remember I was on the sandbag and we got a five round rapid fire. And you know, it faces the English Channel, the targets at the end of the range, you know. And we’re shooting like towards France, in a sense, because France is on the other side of the Channel. So we had five rounds rapid fire, I think I got two or three shots out, see cause there was only a certain amount of time you had to do it in. And this bloody rifle, the kick on it, it knocked me flying off the... it was resting on a sandbag, like this, you know. It knocked me right back cause I was, you know, pretty light at the time. So I think I might have killed a couple of Germans over there with them stray bullets. God knows where they went.

Description

Mr. Bourne describes the camps he was in in Southern England, Bramshott and Shorncliffe, where he learned to shoot using the Ross rifle.

Francis Bourne

Francis Bourne was born in West-Ham, England, on June 6, 1899. His family moved to Canada in 1906. With his parents’ permission, he joined the 90th (Royal Winnipeg) Rifles in September 1915, becoming a bugler. Once in England, Mr. Bourne was attached to the 10th Brigade, 2 Company which served as a supply battalion in France. While not seeing direct action, the risk to the supply lines from shelling and bombing was high. After returning home from the war, Mr. Bourne had a variety of employment before finally joining the Canadian National Railroad in 1922. During the Second World War, Mr. Bourne answered his country’s call once more, training personnel in the 2nd Armoured Car Division at Winnipeg. Married and widowed twice, Mr. Bourne died on May 16, 1993.

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