Interesting tale by WW II Marine.

Doc

Just read something interesting written by a WW II veteran Marine. During the war it was a "Europe First" attitude in DC so the Army in the European Theater got first dibs on the best equipment, like the M1 Garand rifle. The Marines fighting the Japanese in the Pacific got short shift when it came to getting the good stuff and they were not issued the M1 until 1943. Until then they were fighting with the bolt action 1903 Springfield rifle. A good rifle, but of WW I vintage and totally outclassed by the Garand.

So this vet related how Marines and U.S. Army trained together in Australia preparing for deployment against the Japanese. Seeing the Marines with their 1903s, and knowing the Army could get replacements, the soldiers would leave their Garands and drop their ammo belts on the practice field and report that they had lost their rifles in training. They did this as a means to supply the Marines with the best rifle available. Since the government wouldn't do it they took it upon themselves to help out their fellow American fighting men. They did this knowing they risked serious trouble for "losing" their weapons. But the sergeants knew what was happening and simply resupplied the soldiers.

This Marine vet said there was no rivalry between Army and Marines during the war. According to him both sides respected and supported each other. He added that he wishes the Army would get more credit for the fighting it did in the Pacific. Many people now think only the Marines fought the Japanese but so did the U.S. Army.

I found this story to be so American. Guys helping out their brothers in arms. They saw a need the bureaucracy was ignoring and took care of it themselves. God Bless every American who wears or ever wore the uniform...whatever uniform...of the American military.

mlincoln

Sounds like a great story, but it's kind of hard to believe that even the incredibly wasteful American military would routinely shrug and do nothing when a soldier "lost" a rifle in training. Stories about American soldiers looting US supply dumps to sell equipment and food on the black market are well documented, and the level of looting was sometimes astounding, so maybe this story could be true. I've got to think, though, that many a commander would be surprised to see his Marines with a totally different kind of rifle, and one that wasn't issued to him.

There are well-documented stories of British troops being stunned at how wasteful American troops were with equipment and weapons during the fighting, often leaving large amounts of fully functional or barely broken equipment on the battlefield. Apparently a regularly followed ritual in some areas of operation with British soldiers was when a British soldier was killed, his fellow soldiers would lay out the man's full kit, and the the dead soldiers best friend would exchange one item from his possession from the dead fellow's possession. If the dead guy had a nicer, cleaner, sharper bayonet, for example, that would get swapped out. The the second best friend would swap something out, and so forth until everybody in the squad got the best of what the dead guy had.

woodhog

check out Smith vs. Smith Controversy on Guam

patt7638

The story sounds plausible to me. For instance only officers or platoon leaders were issued the Thompson submachine gun but if somebody else came up with one nobody said anything.
I agree the Americans were very wasteful. Once upon a time I was talking to a man that served in the engineers. Apparently maintenance and repair on heavy construction equipment was rather rare. They used it until it broke down and would get a new one.

kimi

I forget the popular Marine quote that our WW2 Sergeants taught us, but it had to do with the subject of Marine equipment as opposed to that of the Army, and doing the most with the least for the longest. I'm pretty sure this grew out of the WW2 era.