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I was watching a documentary called Iwo Jima: 50 years remembered last night and there was a video clip of a guy using an 03A3 as a grenade launcher. There was no mistake that it was an A3. And I'm pretty darn sure it was combat footage, all the footage in the documentary seemed to be from Iwo. So...... It was about 22 or 23 minutes into it. Somewhere around there. But you could see the profile well and there were no open sights before the receiver. You actually couldn't see the rear of the receiver, it was below the film, but you could see the whole rest of the rifle, pointed up while he shot the grenade off of it.
Anyways... I thought that was interesting.
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Not disagreeing, but you often have to watch out for documentaries carefully. They often splice in clips from other battles and other wars.
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Yeah, I don't disagree. I have no way of knowing for sure. It looked as if it was still on Iwo, but it was a closer in shot of 3 guys in a trench. I think I saw some shrubbery. I will tell you this, this was another one that piqued my interest. With about 7 minutes left or so, there was a guy ordering a Japanese soldier to get walking and I'm pretty sure he had an M1A1 Paratrooper Carbine. I was kind of blown away.
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I would think the first question to be addressed in the grenade launcher scene is whether the shooter was a marine or soldier.
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Yeah, agreed. I took it out of my netflix que. But if you're real interested, I'll put it back in and look them over better. I rewound them and looked at them 3-4 times the first time I watched. I'm pretty sure both of the shots were of marines, but I'm not expert. I need to learn how to watch it on my computer, take a snapshot of the image and copy and paste it in here. I don't know how to do that right now though.
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My request for OMPF was denied. They said I have more records than they do.
This is from the NPRC.
They told me to look at:
Staff Daily Journals, AAR's and Operational Reports-Lessons Learned.
They told me to write to the:
National Archives and Records Administration
ATTN: Archives II Reference Section (NWCT2R)
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 2400
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Does this sound right? I know some of you have been down this road before. How
do I go about asking for these? My Grandfather was KIA on July 27th 44. I
have no clue what AAR's to ask for. Would they be dated for the actual action
or when the AAR was made. I would assume for when the action was. But then, I
wouldn't know exactly what days to ask for. Should I just ask for the preceding
week to his KIA status? Or two weeks? I at least know his IR and company, but
I don't know who his LT was. Did the XO do the AAR's? Or does that even
matter?
Any advice is very welcomed.
Thank you for listening to me whine.
J.J.
Another interesting tidbit. Over at the Friends of 2ID website, they are quoting some book by some guy that stated that the 23rd IR of the 2nd ID was commanded by this guy Colonel Fuller. And I guess he was enamored with bolt guns, so supposedly the whole regiment had 03's when they went to Normandy. I guess he was relieved rather shortly in Normandy for his mindset. Or something like that. So there is a good chance my Grandfather had an 03 (probably just a regular ole 03) upon arriving in Normandy, and fought with it a little while. Of course he could have had any other number of weapons also. I have no idea if he was mortar man or not. Or machine gunner or not.
Anyways.........
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Ammo expenditures in the ETO were shown by 5-rd clip and 8-rd clip, so the info might exist. Here's a link to AARs of the 90th Infantry Division (another ETO unit) to give you an idea of the format. I cannot say whether the format is typical for other divisions or whether it applies to smaller units, but you can see that ammo expenditures appear only randomly from month to month.
AAR
What I have found in submitting numerous requests to the National Archives for records of this sort is that you have one shot - give them a succinct request for a single document and you have somewhat better than a 50/50 chance of getting a meaningful reply. Anything more and your odds drop quickly, resulting in a form letter advising you to come visit or hire a researcher. Private researchers get around $35-50/hr and you need to figure on at least four hours to have any chance of them finding anything (and 8 is more like it).
One of the main contributors on the 90ID site is Tyler Alberts, who is also known for his Combat Reels business. Try contacting him though the website and present your research aims to him. He could probably give you some good advice on how to proceed. Tyler is a great guy and has been helpful to me on several occasions. You won't find anyone more knowledgeable or dedicated.
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Wow. Thanks for the tips!!! I'm not just interested in what he carried, although that would be really sweet to know, but I'm also interested as to what happened to him. Which I'm sure probably anybody is who had a relative die there. Or maybe some aren't. It's all just a big mystery. Which might be better left that way. But my curiosity has always been real high about the whole thing. Ever since I knew he died there.
Anyways....... I appreciate the help. A lot. Thank you. I might just do that, contact that guy. As far as I know, there are no places that the 2ID or 23rd IR have posted AAR's on any website. It would be nice though.
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Here's another link to a division site with even more records than the 90ID. You might like to take a look at the National Archives finding aids list. My guess is that NARA prepared these from the packing lists that came in the original ETO packages when the Army turned over the records in the late '40s. The ETO published a detailed records retention policy that dictated what sort of records must be retained and which could be disposed of. Great mounds of stuff that we'd die to see were disposed of prior to the unit's return from the ETO.
7th Armored Division Document Repository - World War II Documents of and related to U. S. 7th Armored Division
I would probably ask for either regimental or battalion G-3 reports for the month in question - unless the commanding officer wrote an official AAR. It's not automatic that the smaller unit report is more detailed. G-1 report would likely mention your Grandfather as a casualty, but without any detail. If you get reports with six or eight digit map coordinates, repro maps with the grids on them can be purchased - or - there is an online convertor that translates grid coordinates into latitude and longitude. Western Europe has great coverage on Google Earth, so it is reasonable to think you could possibly locate where the battalion was on the day your Grandfather was killed. If he was buried in a lone battlefield grave, the IDPF could have grid coordinates of his initial burial location.
Color me dubious on the account you heard of the regiment retaining '03s due to the personal preference of an officer. If it happened, it was done through channels and there would be a document authorizing such a large departure from SOP. Anecdotes sometimes can provide a good starting point for investigating an issue, but they have a very low batting average for overall reliability - and it is almost always impossible to directly verify them.
Good luck. Get that request off to NARA - and then be patient. Sometimes they respond in 3-4 weeks, but average is more like 8-10 weeks. Might take you 3-4 tries as you learn more, but the info is there waiting for you.
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OK, regimental or Battalion G-3 reports from the NARA. Thank you tons!!!!
But
As far as the rifle thing goes, I told those guys I was way skeptical. The author is some College Professor and I'm not sure where he got his info from. The only supporting evidence in which some of the guys were debating over is a photo of 2ndID guys walking up the hill single file on Omaha beach, D-Day plus 1 or 2. And the only rifles present are some carbines and 03's. The couple of pictures we were looking at I totally agree I didn't see any Garands. But I told those guys there's no way of knowing if they were support troops or combat rifleman. Plus, it's only 2 pictures. They said some of the guys that were there claimed it was for sure 23rd IR. Which still doesn't prove anything. Although I wasn't there and who knows, maybe the whole regiment didn't have any Garands. I have no clue. It does seem unlikely. But I figure anything is possible. Which is why when someone makes such a bold claim, it's hard to believe it 100% because there's no way to verify in it's entirety. Eh?
