Weapons

Dear Diary,                                                                                                                         May 16th, 1915

I am so fed up with our ROSS RIFLE! Months we spent at Valcartier training with this rifle, and now when we have finally gotten here it does us NO good. Did Hughes know where he was sending us? He was so proud of his rifle, thinking that it had the best accuracy ever; I feel embarrassed for him because all of the soldiers are mad. The rifle constantly gets clogged up with the mud and stops working. It may be lighter than the other rifles, but what good does that do when it's not practical?

Sam Hughes at Valcartier 

At Valcartier this rifle had amazing accuracy, but here it only causes trouble. There was an early morning attack the other day; we were on guard waiting for them, but the rain was falling down hard. At one point my rifle slipped from my  hands and I frantically grabbed it again, only to find that the rifle had got jammed. My heart started to pound at a thousand beats a minute; I kept pulling the trigger and tried to get the mud cleared, but nothing was working. I quickly ducked down with shots flew overhead and I heard Jonathan yelling to ask if I was okay. I tried to camouflage myself as best as I could praying to the Lord, that I would not be hit. The Lord must have heard my prayers because not too long after, the attack died down. I do not want to even look at the Ross Rifle ever again... it could have caused my death.

Ross Rifle

We use the rifle as one of our main weapons of attack, so we need to quickly get new ones. I hear news of switching to the British Lee-enfield rifle and if that rumour is true I cannot wait for it to happen! That rifle has the ability to fire 15 rounds per minute and most importantly, it does not get jammed. I just pray to God that I do not get stuck in a situation like yesterday morning again.

Yours Truly,