Fighting on Guadalcanal 1943....

In a box of books and old Field Manuals from WWll I found a small book put out by the US War Office. Titled: Restricted. Fighting on Guadalcanal.

The book was approved by Chief of Staff Marshall and the Generals of the US Army and the Marine Corp.

It appears that the book was done after many interviews of some of the soldiers, Marines, NCOs, and commanding officers. The idea was not to redo mistakes made and improve the fighting men.

Some of the solutions put forth were to have a knee mortar like the Japs since their mortar could be set up quickly, produce high volumes of accurate fire, and the shell could be used like a hand grenade. We had cumbersome mortars and the shell could not be used like a grenade. We needed one like that.

Another request was to take the yellow band off the US grenade as when it was thrown, the Japs could see the grenade laying on the ground and toss it back!

The M1 was mentioned as being a fine rifle but the gas tube was bright and shiny and a dead giveaway for the Japs.

What I found most interesting was a statement from Colonel Amor Le R. Sims. Commanding officer, Seventh Marines, 1st Marine Division.
He said, "I wish we had the M1 rifle, and when we get relieved from Guadalcanal, I am going to make every effort to get it." End of Quote....

I read a couple books on that several month battle. In the begining at the airfield, the Japanese had a lot of opportunities to exploit American initial weak defences. The Japanese infantry known for excellent night patrols, would often get to American aircraft deep within defence perimeter, and set off several charges on a few American parked aircraft or even just one. While ignoring just as available ammo and large fuel dumps, that would have been a huge victory, and would have helped for a large victorious counter attack. Made as much sense as Japanese sword led open sectional attacks on well entreched Mg defended US troops, on a nightly basis. Then came starvation too.
No wonder the Japanese army was defeated at Guadalcanal!

I am not a battle tactics expert but what I read in the book was along the lines of what you said.
It appears from the book that the Japanese had a very strict line of command ( Code of Battle) and they were not allowed to deviate from the original battle plan.
The book mentions that it was better to take out the NCOs and the officers and the Japanese soldiers would become confused about what to do and when.
I am sure that there were exceptions within the Japanese army but we learned to use their battle tactics against them. Acknowledged (in the book) that the Jap was a fanatical fighter and dedicated to die for the Emperor. Even in mass wave attacks!

Major General Vandegrift, Commanding General of the First Marines Division said, "For for this type of warfare we need to go back to the tactics of the French and Indian days. I am referring to the tactics and leadership of the days of ROGERS'S RANGERS".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by A. F Medic

The book mentions that it was better to take out the NCOs and the officers and the Japanese soldiers would become confused about what to do and when.

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That is true. Japanese soldiers would not take initiative and relied on orders from superiors. The one exception was designated snipers who would silently remain in a tree top or other camouflaged positions for long periods until they selected a target. My dad was a Marine Combat Engineer on Guadalcanal and was part of a battalion repairing and maintaining the runway at Henderson Field. He told me of a "banana tree" :dancingbanana:that seemed to move slowly closer to his unit until a Marine decided to pick it off.

I spent yesterday visiting a terminally ill Marine corps vveteran of the battle of Guadalcanal and Okinawa. One of his statements was " the Japanese invented jungle warfare" I will really miss him when he is gone
Russ

“What I found most interesting was a statement from Colonel Amor Le R. Sims. Commanding officer, Seventh Marines, 1st Marine Division.
He said, "I wish we had the M1 rifle, and when we get relieved from Guadalcanal, I am going to make every effort to get it." End of Quote....”

When the Marines landed on Guadalcanal they were armed with 03 Springfield’s, when the Marines left Guadalcanal thousands of Marines were fined $37.50 for loosing their 03 Springfield in combat.

They were fined $37.50 because the serial number on the M1 they were carrying matched serial numbers of missing M1s from U.S. Army storage sites on the island…………

These Marines “perfected jungle warfare” and perfected “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”
(And didn’t need a General to tell them they needed more firepower)


My father was a Navy Chief and when I was in grade school we lived next door to a Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant who had served with Chesty Puller on Guadalcanal. Unfortunately since my father was a “swabbie” I always had to be a Jap when I played with his kids.

The sad part was I have been killed on every Pacific island the Marines were ever on during the war. :crying:


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Reising Gun

The Reising gun was designed and developed by noted gun inventor Eugene Reising. It was patented in 1940 and manufactured by the old gun-making firm of Harrington and Richardson of Worcester, Massachusetts. It is said that it was made on existing machine tools, some dating back to the Civil War, and of ordinary steel rather than ordnance steel. With new machine tools and ordnance steel scarce and needed for more demanding weapons, the Reising met an immediate requirement for many sub-machine guns at a time when production of Thompson M1928 and M1 sub-machine guns hadn't caught up with demand and the stamped-out M3 "grease gun" had not yet been invented. It was a wartime expedient.

The Reising was made in two different models, the 50 and the 55. The Model 50 had a full wooden stock and a Cutts compensator attached to the muzzle. The compensator, a device which reduced the upward muzzle climb from recoil, was invented by Richard M. Cutts, Sr., and his son, Richard M. Cutts, Jr., both of whom became Marine brigadier generals. The other version was dubbed the Model 55. It had a folding metal-wire shoulder stock which swivelled on the wooded pistol grip. It also had a shorter barrel and no compensator. It was intended for use by parachutists, tank crews, and others needing a compact weapon. Both versions of the Reising fired .45-caliber ammunition, the same cartridge as the Colt automatic pistol and the Thompson.

In all, there were approximately 100,000 Reising sub-machine guns produced between 1940 and 1942. Small numbers of the weapons were acquired by both Great Britain and the Soviet Union. However, most were used by the U.S. Marine Corps in the Solomon Islands campaign. The Model 55 was issued to both Marine parachute battalions and Marine raiders, seeing service first on Guadalcanal. After its dubious debut in combat it was withdrawn from frontline service in 1943 due to several flaws in design and manufacture.

The Reising's major shortcoming was its propensity for jamming. This was due to both a design problem in the magazine lips and the fact that magazines were made of a soft sheet steel. The weapons' safety mechanism didn't always work and if the butt was slammed down on the deck, the hammer would set back against the mainspring and then fly forward, firing a chambered cartridge. The design allowed the entry of dirt into the mechanism and close tolerances caused it to jam. Finally, the steel used allowed excessive rust to form in the tropical humidity of the Solomons. Nevertheless, at six pounds, the Reising was handier than the 10-pound Thompson, more accurate, pleasanter to shoot, and reliable under other than combat conditions, but one always had to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

....That reising article has more mis-information and errors than an obama press release.
Chris

Once the Officers had realized all the flaws and the unreliability associated with the Reising, there were large amounts that were dumped overboard and the troops were issued different rifles before heading into the next combat zone.
It didn't take the Officers and N.C.O.'s too long to figure out that those Reisings were nothing but junk.

:clap: