1-18-19 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

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[Bob Womack]

Welcome back, Mark. We appreciate your pics!!!

Bob

[rayg]

The bayonet on the guard would be to close to that one fellow for my comfort, Ray

[browningautorifle]

The bayonet on the guard would be to close to that one fellow for my comfort, Ray

Have you ever tried to get an M1 bayonet out in a hurry? Specially upside down and backwards...and not on your own hip? And then you're on board an enemy ship, now what? Or did you just want to die...

[frankderrico]

I think those POW'S know life just got better for them.

[browningautorifle]

life just got better for them

Absolutely, they might just live to see 1953 now. They look like kids anyway...maybe 16? Hard to say...

[Bob Seijas]

That was the only thing that bothered Hector Cafferata about the night he took out 200 Chinese attackers on Fox Hill... Hector was 6'2" and weighed 220 lbs, the enemy were young and very small, looked like kids to him. He got over that, but it initially got to him.

[browningautorifle]

the enemy were young and very small

Probably felt like he'd gone amongst a boys public school group...with guns... And they had attacked a giant.

Marine Medals |Private Hector A. Cafferata

CMOHS.org - Private CAFFERATA, HECTOR A., JR., U.S. Marine Corps

[CINDERS]

I have watched the M.O.H series on Netflix and recommend it.

I know some of the members here despise this provider but in Aus its get what you can as far as that goes besides we have the Greens to worry about taking our weapons.

Also if they are old enough to hold, aim and fire a weapon accurately then they are just as deadly as an adult and if they can't do that well give them a Panzerfaust type weapon like Hiltler did......

[Bob Seijas]

The medal citation is really bad. Hector and Kenny Bensen were in an improvised OP when the attack started, Kenny was asleep, Hector had his boots off and his feet tucked into his sleeping bag. When the Chinese attacked Hector began shooting them with his M1 and Kenny with his BAR. As the the numbers got bigger and bigger, they crawled back to a shallow ditch that was part of the platoon line, Hector without his boots. On the way back a Chinese grenade went off in front of Kenny's face, blinding him. (Their grenades were more like our flash-bangs, not our frags). There were three Marines in the ditch, one was dead and two were wounded. Kenny crouched in the ditch loading M1s by feel and handing them up to Hector when he was empty. Hector continued to kill attackers all night every time a new wave came at them.
The officer who put him in for the medal said he personally thought Hector killed over a hundred but he was afraid it would not be believed, so he put it in as 35. The award committee cut it back further to "more than 15," the first two clips he shot from the OP when the attack started. The next morning Marines from the other side of the perimeter came over and tried to count to dead in front of Hector's position, but lost count after 200.
That morning Hector crawled back out to the OP to retrieve his boots, that was when he was shot in the shoulder by the sniper. There is little doubt that Hector saved the Marine position on Fox Hill that first night, it would have been overrun without him and his M1.
Attachment 98427
Hector said the painting is inaccurate, he was in stocking feet and did not have his parka on. In addition, he did not stand up on the little ridge, he stayed in the ditch with only his upper body exposed. Kenny is seen at lower left reloading rifles.