Ranger John Gilberts Gun

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M1 Garand owners? - U.S. Militaria Forum

It blizzarding here and time to sit at the box.

I caught this thread about a Rangers Gun, a 2.7 million, 4-44 bbl garand that had been recovered in France in a barn. His grave site was also photographed in the US Cemetary in Tunisia, next to that of his brother.
Apparently Gilbert lost the gun during the taking of Brest, in August '44 by the 29th division. He was a Ranger in the 175th infantry.
FYI, "The Clay Pidgeons of St Lo" was about the 29th division. So was, "Ryan". Gilbert died in 45 in Luxembourg, so how the gun, once handled by him, and found in Brest, a long way from Luxembourg is a mystery.

I was really intersted in the grafitti he had carved on his stock. The diamond and numerous 8 bulletpoint pricks from tapping the clip against the stock was amazing. The shrapnel dings on the stock were telling. The time between the guns issue and loss is only 3-4 months.
A new replacement gun for Gilbert is quite likely as the 29th divisions guns were chewed up in Normandy and the hedgerows. He did have time to customize the 4-44 gun however, quite distinctively.

I can now see why so few battle scarred stocks with cartouches remain from duty in Europe and the South Pacific. They were totally beat up, customized and dinged. They needed to be sanded heavily and many were.

If I read correctly, most of the ETO garands were rebuilt by FN from 46-49.
I wonder if they saved those dinged stocks and they are still in some warehouses, like the '03 stocks that came out of there a few years ago.

I'll bet personalized stock id's were quite common during WWII, as was stock destruction during conflict from any number of hazards.

Anybody have a WWII stock with those 8 point bullet point impressions and obvious battle scarrs?

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