Matching Garand En Bloc Clips in a Bandolier?

[WW2Buff]

Hi, new to the forum, not new to Garands, 30-06, and WW2 militaria. Great forum by the way!

There is probably an answer to my question out there, but I haven't been able to find it after numerous searches. Back in the 80's (which didn't use to sound that long ago...) my boss, in his 60's and a Navy vet, gave me a partial bandolier of USGI WW2 Garand ammo. He served in Hawaii shortly after the Korean War and one day was ordered to take a barge offshore and dump a bunch of "expired" ammo. He and his crew hauled crate after crate of M1 Garand, Carbine, machine gun, etc ammunition out to deep water and started dumping it overboard. Kind of brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it... My boss scrounged a few bandos of Garand ammo and somehow got them home either during or after his enlistment was up. The bando he gave me had 4 or 5 clips in it (I think), Lake City 1943. I was new to collecting at the time, and had just gotten my first Garand. Like a dummy, I shot all of it up except for one clip. I kept all the clips, though.

So here's my question. I still have the bandolier, all of its cardboard inserts, and the Lake City insert card. I have a bunch of Borg Warner clips, which I know are post-war. The sole remaining loaded clip in the bando has an SA-stamped clip. I have 3 other SA clips and 2 SA-with-dashes-over-and-under clips. I'm pretty sure I've retained all my clips over the ensuing years. Would the clips in a wartime bandolier all have the same stamping, or did the armories have a mix and the bando could have a mix?

How's that for a "Riddle Me This, Batman"?...

Information

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[browningautorifle]

I'd think they would be supplied by various companies and use what came to hand.

[Bob Seijas]

Tom Bond's article in the Winter GCA Journal discussed bandoleers from three wars. The WWII bandoleer had 1945 ammo and clips marked WEP1, WEP3, and WEP4. The Korean War had TW 1953 ammo and clips marked BRW1 and BRW5. Only the Nam bandoleer had mixed clips: LC 69 ammo and clips marked AGE2, BRW5, DAQ, and unmarked SA.

[RT Ellis]

Excuse the diversion from the main topic, but the comment about salvaging SA ammunition intended to be dumped at sea reminds me of a story. An uncle by marriage, who was an Aviation Machinist Mate USN in the 1930s. He related that one day a barge was headed out to sea from the Port of San Diego, California. While rounding North Island (Navel Air Station) the crew of the barge dumped cases of small arms ammunition, which were intended for deep water, as they passed close ashore. My uncle and a friend were able to recover several cases at low tide. I have a vague recollection that they made some kind of a fuse using powder from some of the cartridges, packed into a pipe, lit it off and ran. The explosion rattled the city across the bay, broke a few windows, and set off an official investigation that didn't identify the culprits.

There must have been enough debris left to identify the source of the explosion as SA ammunition, and the connection to the barge was probably determined, but my uncle and his friend must have "sweated bullets" until the excitement died down.