USMC small arms in the Korean War

[smle-man]

Just finished reading "The Last Stand of Fox Company" about a USMC rifle company at the Chosin reservior. Fox company was surrounded and under attack for several days in weather that never went above -20F during the whole battle. From the book which used historical records and first person interviews with the survivors I gleaned the following information on the weapons carried by the Marines, at least at this time during the war. As you would expect M1 rifles and M1 carbines were standard issue. 1911A1s seemed to be in plentiful supply but no submachine guns were mentioned as being issued to the Marines although several Thompsons and one M3 were taken from dead ChiComs and used by the Marines. 1919A4s and from the description at least one 1919A6 was on issue. Also attached were two 1917A1 HMGs. Initially one froze and was useless during the first night's battle. The next night and the rest of the battle both of these performed flawlessly. They were even used for reverse slope firing to clear out enemy troop concentrations. Two 'bazookas' were carried and only fired once. The severe cold seemed to reduce the range considerably and the Marines decided they weren't worth the effort to use. Two or three 60mm mortars and two 81mm mortars were with the company. BARs were on issue, some had the same problem as the M1s - they were so sluggish that many had to be worked by hand, they would not fire semi auto (M1) or full auto (BAR). There were no scoped rifles with the company which put them at a disadvantage to the Chinese who apparently had some sniper rifles as many Marines were shot at considerable distance by daytime enemy firing. the Marines were unable to locate most of these snipers. Scoped M1s or 03s would have been lifesavers. One of the airdrops to the Marines had a load of 03 rifles and clipped ammunition for the rifles. The authors wrote that the Marines were dumbfounded to see the rifles and ammunition for them. hand grenades had problems with the spoon freezing to the body and not releasing when the pin was pulled. At first the Marines thought the grenades were duds. Someone finally figured out what was going on. One Marine 1919A4 was captured by the Chinese after overrunning the Marine crew and then recaptured by the Marines the following day. The Marines also captured and used a Browning Automatic rifle, A Nambu MG, many Mauser rifles, Thompsons, an M3, and many stick grenades.

I highly recommend this book for its gritty realism.

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