As for that part, there's footage of end war MPs performing firing squad duties with war criminals and they still have M1903s...they never did go completely out of service.
Re: the discussion of the bayonets, I was about to mention that the rifle M1903, bayonet M1905, one piece fatigue uniform, and flag arm band suggested North Africa, when the caption on the image was published to confirm this. I only mention this to indicate that careful examination of an image can be very useful to determining the place and time the image was captured, and how useful a caption is to understanding the image.
Traditionally execution firing parties are provided with one rifle pre-loaded at random with a blank round. This ostensibly provides a degree of comfort to the firing members that they may not have fired a bullet that killed a human being. With rifle M1 it would be easy to detect the blank round as there would be no ejection of the cartridge case. With a bolt action rifle supposedly the rifle with the blank round would not be detected, however anyone that has fired live ammunition and experienced the recoil of the rifle M1903 should be able to detect the lack of recoil of the rifle with blank cartridge. I suppose that in the excitement of the moment, with the noise of the discharge of the weapons it might be possible to not notice the lack of recoil. It was the usual practice that the firing party would eject the expended cartridge case before the NCO in charge to demonstrate that the cartridge had been fired, to assure all members of the execution party discharged their weapons, although there was slight chance that a deliberate miss would be noticed.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
there was slight chance that a deliberate miss would be noticed.
If you watched the footage you could clearly see a shot fired well above and off to the side of the target. Someone aimed way off each time, and there were more than just the one shot up in the hill too.
Here's the film clip...it states Belgium so it may be 1944 still...
Operation Greif (German: Unternehmen Greif; pronounced [ɡʀaɪ̯f], meaning "Griffin") was a special false flag operation commanded by Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. The operation was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler, and its purpose was to capture one or more of the bridges over the Meuse river before they could be destroyed. German soldiers, wearing captured British and US Army uniforms and using captured Allied vehicles, were to cause confusion in the rear of the Allied lines. A lack of vehicles, uniforms, and equipment limited the operation and it never achieved its original aim of securing the Meuse bridges.
Manfred Pernass, Günther Billing, and Wilhelm Schmidt were lined and tied up for execution by firing squad after a U.S. military court found them guilty of espionage. They were captured behind U.S. lines in U.S. uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge.
Comprising Unteroffizier Manfred Pernass, he was the driver of the jeep, Oberfähnrich, Günther Billing, and Gefreiter, Wilhelm Schmidt they were captured when they failed to give the correct password. They had Id cards with the following names ‘Charles W. Lawrence’, ‘Clarence van der Wert’ en ‘George Sensenbach’ but Pernass, Billing, and Schmidt were given a military trial at Henri Chapelle, sentenced to death, and executed by a firing squad on 23-12-1944. Captain J. Eiser (medic) of the 633th Medical Clearing Station pinned the white target patches on their chests, Schmidt’s glasses were taken off before he was shot and fanatic Billing shouted “Long live our Führer Adolf Hitler” at the moment suprime.
Last edited by Mark in Rochester; 09-29-2016 at 06:06 PM.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose
There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
Great picture of an Springfield 03 in the field during WWII. I noticed the long bayonet. I really appreciate any photo of this rifle in service during WWII.
The Lw guy is an NCO, appears to have 3 gulls on his colar tab = SFC. Must be a rear echelon type as I see no badges on his uniform - unless they had been taken as souviners.
Sarge
Originally Posted by 25-5
PM
