You got me reflecting on it a little bit more so I did some digging around. In the book Odyssey of a Philippine Scout, it was a young cavalryman who didn't know the 1917 Enfield. It wasn't too specific so maybe it was referring to how he didn't know how to take it apart and take care of it?

I also asked a 31st Infantry veteran of Bataan yesterday via email about it. He was in the middle of all of that you-know-what when it hit the fan. and here are the things he told me:

- In boot camp they had to qualify for both the 1903 and the Garandicon

- They used the 1903 only for sniper hunting because it was perceived to be more accurate than the Garand in that respect. But everyone carried the Garand because it wasn't accuracy in the jungle they were after but firepower. And the recoil to fire it was "just like rocking in a rocking chair" in his words.

- He only had two jams with his Garand during the whole campaign and wasn't too difficult to fix.

- He said that a CO who allowed his men to exchange all their Garands for 1903's would have been very wrong to do so.

- They never had a shortage of enbloc clips.


I realize that what is true in one infantry company may not be true for another, but this is true for F Company, Second Battalion, 31st Infantry.