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I was watching Kelly's Heroes last night and noticed that the US sniper in the bell tower is using a Mosin Nagant PU rifle. I thought that was interesting and while I realize it is a movie and not a historically accurate one at that, it got me wondering if US troops ever did use PU snipers or if this was just something Hollywood just had in the closet.
I can say with 99.9999999 certainty that no they did not. I think it's what the prop house had on hand.
That movie was filmed in Yugoslavia - I guess at the time there were more PUs than M1903A4s available in that part of the world....
Aragorn: The Germans certainly did use Mosin-Nagant sniper rifles that they captured- and apparently liked them! In keeping with the fanciful tone of this movie it's not a stretch to think a GI might have taken one from a neutralized German who had brought it with him from Russia. Great movie but when I tried to have a quick look at that scene I realized my copy is a VHS tape and we no longer have a VHS player- Aargh! Back to tuning my No.4 T for the "Ross Rifle Shoot"- my kind of technology.
Ridolpho
It seems to be a subject there isn't a lot of information on. You have to know that when certain things were captured, they weren't simply discarded. There is quite a bit of documentation on Germans and the Soviets using captured equipment but not so much the US. I understand the US mass produced things in huge numbers and standardization makes things a lot easier but if you capture a German truck, are you going to push it to the side or repaint it and use it. A lot of German trucks were Fords but they never seem to make it into the movies.
Odd Ball is carrying a Luger but it looked like it may have been in a 45 holster, not sure on that.
Odd Ball Buys the Tiger from the crew at the end too....woof woof.!!
It is POSSIBLE that the US snipers did use a few Mosin PU's captured from Axis soldiers, but I think it would be highly unlikely.
General Hatcher did note in his book Hatcher's Notebook that captured German weapons were frequently used by US forces, and that captured ammo was supplied to those US soldiers who were using them.
It is known that the German Army made ammunition for captured Soviet rifles such as the SVT 40, so they just may have made ammo for the Mosin sniper rifles as well. Getting some of that ammo in France would probably have been close to impossible, most likely just what a sniper using a Mosin had on him when he was captured or surrendered.
I watched the Green Berets (John Wayne) last night and could have sworn I saw an Enfield No 5 Mk1 in the hands of a VC.
On another note I am reading The Wild Blue (Steven Ambrose Book) and noticed the mention of German captured B-24s joining our (USAAF) formations to act as spotters for German anti aircraft batteries.
Hooked on History, don't know if you know about the site LONE SENTRY but in the section called technical & tactical trends there are a few after action reports of the Germans & Japanese doing this. To anybody interested in the nuts & bolts of ww2 combat I highly recommend this site.
Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by WarPig1976