'03 Springfield Picture of the Day

[CapnJohn]

The art of camouflage has reached a high degree of perfection since World War I. The leopard-spotted suits these U.S. Army soldiers are wearing blends them into the landscape and the nets conceal their helmets. 1942?

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[Don W]

M1917's ????

[Rick the Librarian]

Any chance they could be British soldiers and the rifles P14s? They aren't M1903s.

[Mike Haas]

Not US Troops - look at the helmets.

[Chuckindenver]

not US, not helmets, not 1903,s. they are 1917,s, and boonie type hats.
notice no long range sights on the rifles, that the 14,s have.
maybe French.? Italian? look at the hat being worn by the officer in the background.

[John Beard]

Those look like Filipinos. And they're carrying M1917 rifles. The Filipinos were issued a large quantity of M1917 rifles.

J.B.

[Rick the Librarian]

Filipinos did receive large numbers of M1917s in the late 1930s. However, the vast majority of them were lost in early WWII. Also, the camouflage utilities date to late WWII - well after the fall of Bataan. The overseas cap on the man in the background looks French to me. I'd guess French or French colonial troops in late WWII or possibly even Algeria or Indochina.

[Fredtheobviouspseudonym]

from the appropriate "Green Book" the US sent large numbers of 1917s to the Free French (then just French) Army in 1944-45.

Since the French almost never throw anything away they might have used some of these in the early 1950s.