19 Jan 2023 Garand Picture of the Day

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96th Infantry Division moves up Big Apple Hill, scene of intense fighting on Okinawa, April 1945. While his M1 Garand is very much in use, he also sports both a Japanese Nambu holster and an M1911

Battle of Okinawa - Wikipedia

The Americans suffered some 48,000 casualties, not including some 33,000 non-battle casualties (psychiatric, injuries, illnesses), of whom over 12,000 were killed or missing. Killed in action were 4,907 Navy, 4,675 Army, and 2,938 Marine Corps personnel; when excluding naval losses at sea and losses on the surrounding islands (such as Ie Shima), 6,316 killed and over 30,000 wounded occurred on Okinawa proper. Other authors such as John Keegan have come up with higher numbers.

The most famous American casualty was Lieutenant General Buckner, whose decision to attack the Japanese defenses head-on, although extremely costly in American lives, was ultimately successful. Four days from the closing of the campaign, Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery fire, which blew lethal slivers of coral into his body, while inspecting his troops at the front line. He was the highest-ranking US officer to be killed by enemy fire during the Second World War. The day after Buckner was killed, Brigadier General Easley was killed by Japanese machine gunfire. The famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle was also killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on Ie Shima, a small island just off of northwestern Okinawa

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Brigadier General Claudius Easley

Medal of Honor recipients from Okinawa are:

Beauford T. Anderson – 13 April
Richard E. Bush – 16 April
Robert Eugene Bush – 2 May
Henry A. Courtney Jr. – 14–15 May
Clarence B. Craft – 31 May
James L. Day – 14–17 May
Desmond Doss – 29 April – 21 May
John P. Fardy – 7 May
William A. Foster – 2 May
Harold Gonsalves – 15 April
William D. Halyburton Jr. – 10 May
Dale M. Hansen – 7 May
Louis J. Hauge Jr. – 14 May
Elbert L. Kinser – 4 May
Fred F. Lester – 8 June
Martin O. May – 19–21 April
Richard M. McCool Jr. – 10–11 June
Robert M. McTureous Jr. – 7 June
John W. Meagher – 19 June
Edward J. Moskala – 9 April
Joseph E. Muller – 15–16 May
Alejandro R. Ruiz – 28 April
Albert E. Schwab – 7 May
Seymour W. Terry – 11 May

Top pic has a hard won Nambu pistol I'd guess...and looks like he's using an M1907 sling as a pistol belt. Guess he didn't want it on his M1936 belt?

I seem to remember John Basilone was to have been recommended for his 2nd MOH on this campaign on IWO sadly he was killed on the 1st day did this ever happen.

From the web ~ In February 1945, he was killed in action on the first day of the invasion of Iwo Jima, after he single-handedly destroyed an enemy blockhouse and led a Marine tank under fire safely through a minefield.

Whats the shooter got wrapped around the grips of the 1911!

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Originally Posted by CINDERS

Whats the shooter got wrapped around the grips of the 1911!

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I thought maybe a comin' ashore bag but I don't think that's possible...

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

Top pic has a hard won Nambu pistol I'd guess...and looks like he's using an M1907 sling as a pistol belt. Guess he didn't want it on his M1936 belt?

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Type 26 revolver that shot a round shorter than a S&W 38 short. Very anemic round.

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

I thought maybe a comin' ashore bag but I don't think that's possible...

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Don't think that it is a bag - but they did have them

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WW2 C1 Survival Vest Plastic 45 Pistol Cover Bag


Also note the M1907 Sling as a belt

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Originally Posted by Mark in Rochester

but they did have them

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Yes, it doesn't look like it would be that one though...more like guntape or something. Hard to say now.

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Originally Posted by Mark in Rochester

Also note the M1907 Sling as a belt

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I saw that...

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Originally Posted by Mark in Rochester

Medal of Honor recipients from Okinawa are:

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Kind of says it all.

I would not like to have been on the selection panel for either the MOH or VC given they were all in the mix doing the same bloody business.

Of the VC there have only been 3 V C's & Bar won (Effectivelt won twice) by combatants they are;

Lt. Col. Arthur Martin-Leake of the Imperial Yeomanry was the first to receive a second Victoria Cross. The first was from his actions in the Boer War in 1902. Martin-Leake went to help several wounded soldiers during a battle at Vlakfontein.
While aiding a wounded officer, he was shot three times. He refused aid for himself until others had been treated. Due to his injuries, he was sent back to Britain where he continued his medical studies.
In 1914, at 40 years of age, Martin-Leake signed up for the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I.
He rescued a number of injured soldiers in Zonnebeke during fighting there. He received the bar for his actions. He survived the war, and died in 1953.

Capt. Noel Godfrey Chavasse RAMC also joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.
He received his first Victoria Cross in 1916 for saving 20 wounded men in the line of fire in No Man’s Land by Guillemont, France. He carried several of the men 500 yards under enemy fire.
One year later, Chavasse was wounded in action at Wieltie, Belgium. He continued to treat wounded men and search No Man’s Land for more injured troops until he was exhausted from his own wounds.
He died in August 1917.
He is the only recipient to receive two Victoria Crosses for actions in World War I.

Captain Charles Upham, 20th Infantry Battalion (New Zealand) Charles Upham picked up his first Victoria Cross in Crete in 1941 where his citation contained so many individual acts of gallantry it is hard to pick out the one that put him over the top.
His second Victoria Cross would come during the First Battle of El Alamein in 1942 that would end with him bleeding out, unable to move, and subsequently captured by the Germans.
As a POW, he made so many attempts to escape that he was finally interned at Colditz Castle for the remainder of the war.
When he would emerge in 1945, he would do so as the only man to receive two Victoria Crosses in the war – a source of great pride for New Zealand .