28 April 2021 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

Korea: Battle Ground
Date taken: May 1951
Photographer: Michael Rougier

Information

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[Daan Kemp]

Nice selection of interesting stuff lying around.

[RCS]

Looks like a Soviet PPS43 smg

[frankderrico]

Full Auto carbine on the bags.

[Bill Hollinger]

Full Auto carbine on the bags.

It sure is Frank! Well worn "go" switch stands out.

What a unique machine gun the M2 is. By simply pulling two pins and removing a couple of parts it's no longer FA. That handful of pesky M2 stamped receivers is the difference though

[ssgross]

looks like an OP, very very high up on a mountain with sheer terrain in front. Valley floor looks very far away. Helmets off on the 3 occupants, must believe they are relatively safe. nco with helmet on probably making his rounds.

[browningautorifle]

looks like an OP,

Don't know about that...from what I have learned many fights took place in just this sort of terrain. The grenades at left are ready to be distributed to the advancing enemy on a need basis and there's another fighting position just left. The helmet should have an NCO bar at back? For sure nothing's going to happen too quickly here though. Definitely the duty post though.

[ssgross]

many fights took place in just this sort of terrain

Yep. The Netflix documentary series "Medal of Honor" has one such account of fending off human waves charging up such terrain.

From my own experience, grenades "at the ready" would never be located outside or topside of the hole. They would be on our person or, if more were available than could be on person, piled in a box or somewhere protected in the hole within easy reach. The bags in the left of the pic are too close to be the "next position"? That's why I though OP, as it's all part of the same larger position. I could be wrong. My first instinct was these guys have all their firepower laid out and are taking inventory of what they have. I've never seen insignia at the rear, but I'm likely too young to have seen or noticed many enough period examples to say one way or the other.

[browningautorifle]

I've never seen insignia at the rear,

That white transverse bar on the helmet could have been a WW2 thing, don't know if it was carried on in Korea.