M1 Carbine made by Inland Division. The serial number is XC 43

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Originally Posted by XXX1

M1 carbine as he carried one from 1942-45 while fighting under General Patton's command. (If anyone would like me to ask him more about his thoughts on the M1, let me know as I will be talking to again soon.)

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Just saw this note (now two years old). XXX1: if your friend is still with us and has any interesting stories to tell, please interview him. Get as many stories as you can ... anything about Patton is fascinating -- from North Africa to Sicily to Germany. Please see Heroic Tale of a Tail Gunner for a story I just wrote to preserve this vital part of our history. Don't let this opportunity pass if he is still alive -- we won't have many WWII vets left soon.

P.S. As a midshipman being trained in amphibious assault in 1967, I served on the U.S.S. Monrovia, which was Patton's Command Ship for the Sicily invasion -- perhaps your uncle's friend debarked from that ship?

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Originally Posted by Seaspriter

P.S. As a midshipman being trained in amphibious assault in 1967, I served on the U.S.S. Monrovia, which was Patton's Command Ship for the Sicily invasion -- perhaps your uncle's friend debarked from that ship?

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You must have trained as some of the last on her. The USS Monrovial APA 31 (attack transport) Dec 1 1942 - Oct 31 1968, then was sold for scrap.

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Originally Posted by JimF4M1s

The USS Monrovial APA 31 (attack transport) Dec 1 1942 - Oct 31 1968,

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Jim, you obviously did your homework. She was an old war horse by the summer of 1967 -- the oldest active ship in the Navy. She was rusty and worn. I was training as a US Navy 2nd class Midshipman out of Little Creek Virginia -- Marine boot camp. We were housed in German POW barracks during that summer. Then the Marines put us on the Monrovia. I will never forget going down to our bunks! They were lined 5 levels high -- 18 inches between racks: metal pipe racks with canvas stretched between the pipes. Over the last millennia the canvas had stretched so badly that when you had to clamour into your rack, the guy's arse in the bunk above sagged into the next lower rack, giving you about a 8-9 inch slot to squeeze through. It was almost impossible to wedge yourself in. I remember a few heavy-weight middies who took forever to wedge themselves in -- usually the guy above have to reorient himself to help create space. The view looking above at the next rack was memorable to this day.

In the morning we got on our battle gear -- helmets and M-1s (no carbines), climbed down the netting into bouncing LCVPs (just like the Normandy invasion pictures), and circled the Monrovia until the mock invasion started. We landed on a beachhead somewhere in Virginia (near Dam Neck I recall), stormed up the sand dunes, and encountered enemy fire (all safe to ensure no one got killed). We all were screaming gung-ho, and playing John Wayne (remember we were still just kids then).

Then we bivouacked inland. This is where we then had to field strip our weapons, blindfolded. The M-1s and Colt 1911s were stripped down, cleaned of sand, and put back together. I'm a pretty mechanical guy, so I never had much problem with the blindfolded exercise, but some of my college buddies who were not engineering majors had problems with this big-time.

Upon reflection -- I really wish I was on the Monrovia for the Sicilian invasion -- but could only live my time with Patton vicariously. When the movie: Patton was on TCM last week, I somehow felt a kinship to this hero.

My father was on a similar ship in the Pacific Theater, the AGC3 USS Rocky Mount from October 1943 thru April 1945. He was involved in some of the major assaults (Marshalls, Marianas and Phillipines) of the Pacific Campaign.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/01/0103.htm

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Originally Posted by Newscotlander

My father was on a similar ship in the Pacific Theater, the AGC3 USS Rocky Mount from October 1943 thru April 1945. He was involved in some of the major assaults (Marshalls, Marianas and Phillipines) of the Pacific Campaign.

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Your father, like mine, served in the Pacific Theatre and suffered some of the heaviest attacks from Japanese Kamikaze planes. One of the unknown stories is how we were able to shoot down so many Japanese dive bombers, torpedo bombers, and Baca bombs. The naval ships that surrounded your father's AGC were equipped with shells that had proximity fuzes built into their detonators. It was the best kept secret of the war. My father's destroyer knocked out 13 Kamikaze planes between the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. If anyone is interested, the fascinating case study of its development and deployment can be found at: Dropbox - Proximity Fuze

Can't view the link without signing up. Does it cover the GE goof of leaving a top secret prototype on the table after thier meeting , then running back into the next meeting to recover it only to find it in the hands of another GE employee who knew how to cut the costs from $50-$60 each to a few pennies and how to mass produce them ? He was in the GE Christmas tree lights section before the war and saw how to use that know-how to build these.
Chris