7 Dec 2022 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

USS California settling in shallow waters, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, US Territory of Hawaii, 7 Dec 1941




Hawaii, Dec. 1941
Garrison Period Assigned 1922-10-17 to the Hawaiian Division, and stationed at Schofield Barracks.
Divisional assignment changed on 1941-08-26 from the Hawaiian Division to the 24th Infantry Division.




M1's at Pearl Harbor

Recalls Marine Private Le Fan, who was with a group that had been issued the then-high-tech semiautomatics, "This sergeant put us behind a retaining wall approximately four feet high, facing the harbor. Somehow he got hold of about six bandoliers of '03 ammunition that was in 03 clips. We were all armed, 10 of us with M-1 rifles, the M-1 Garand, semiautomatic, .30 caliber. They would fire the '03 ammo, but we had to have a special eight-round clip to go into the M-1, and we were given bandoliers of 03 ammunition, with five-round clips. I opened the receiver of my Garand and put one round into the chamber and closed it... I recall one Jap pilot coming over, and he waved at us as he did. He was very low-- less than 100 feet high-- because he was going to Battleship Row. They would wave at us, and we were throwing .30 caliber rounds at them as fast as we could, from single shots because we could not fire semiautomatic. I fired 60 rounds, because I recall this particular bandolier that I got had 60 rounds in it."

Information

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[RCS]

My photos show some of the ship Postal Cancellations of the Pearl Harbor ships.

Each ship had their own postmark to cancel mail

These are all original postmarks and dated before Dec 7th

[CINDERS]

The most humbling experience in my life was in 1990 standing on the Arizona memorial and looking at all those names on that marble wall just mind numbing trying to comprehend just how many of the poor souls are beneath you in the waves. RIP.