WWII Bayonets, 03's and USMC Snipers

[Jim Tarleton]

geberl,

Guadacanal was the only action not in the pile of photos. I was expecting to see 03's of the grenadiers, but what I saw was carbines with grenade launchers! To be honest, I didn't know you could use a grenade launcher with a carbine.

Jim

Information

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[Hank Stone]

Is it true many Marines didn't like the M-1 Garand,but favored the tried and trusted 1903s?Reading an article some years back,it stated the Government had a hard time making the Marines accept the M-1!

[John Beard]

Is it true many Marines didn't like the M-1 Garand,but favored the tried and trusted 1903s?Reading an article some years back,it stated the Government had a hard time making the Marines accept the M-1!

During the early days of WWII, the Marine Corps consisted of two factions: (1) old-line Marines from the pre-WWII days, and (2) new recruits and young officers who enlisted after Pearl Harbor. The old-line Marines were wedded to the M1903 rifle for various reasons. The young new Marines had no such prejudices. After Guadalcanal and the swelling ranks of young Marines saw what the M1 rifle could do, they demanded satisfaction. No government convincing was required. It then became of matter of just how fast they could get them.

As a matter of note, the Guadalcanal action didn't start until August, 1942, some 8 months into the war. By that time, Remington had pumped about 150,000 additional M1903 rifles into Navy and Marine Corps inventories.

J.B.

[TDH]

Is it true many Marines didn't like the M-1 Garand,but favored the tried and trusted 1903s?Reading an article some years back,it stated the Government had a hard time making the Marines accept the M-1!

The Marines didn't have many M1's at the beginning of the war and the 1st Marines that landed on the Canal didn't have any of them. They did have BAR's and Thompsons and even some Johnsons's but no M1's or Carbines. This came from a foreman I had that was in the 1st wave that landed on as he called it the Canal. It is well documented that after the Army came in to releive them that they had to watch their M1's like hawks or the Marines would have them. The Marines saw the distinct advantage of the M1 Garand over their tried and trusted 03's. BTW most of those 03's were low numbersjust like this one

[John Beard]

The Marines didn't have many M1's at the beginning of the war and the 1st Marines that landed on the Canal didn't have any of them. They did have BAR's and Thompson's and even some Johnson's but no M1's or Carbines. This came from a foreman I had that was in the 1st wave that landed on as he called it the Canal. It is well documented that after the Army came in to relieve them that they had to watch their M1's like hawks or the Marines would have them. The Marines saw the distinct advantage of the M1 Garand over their tried and trusted 03's. BTW most of those 03's were low numbers just like this one

I have found no evidence to indicate that most Marine M1903 rifles carried on Guadalcanal were low numbers. Certainly some low number rifles were present. But, I very seriously doubt that their numbers were predominant. Most Marine rifles at the start of WWII were high numbers. And those were rapidly augmented with new Remingtons.

FWIW.

J.B.

[TDH]

I have found no evidence to indicate that most Marine M1903 rifles carried on Guadalcanal were low numbers. Certainly some low number rifles were present. But, I very seriously doubt that their numbers were predominant. Most Marine rifles at the start of WWII were high numbers. And those were rapidly augmented with new Remingtons.

FWIW.

J.B.

My late foreman never made mention of how many LN's Vs.HN's god rest his soul as he was a good man. BTW his name was Harry Joseph. I know I read it somewhere on the net that they used a large number of LN's. Since I am not going to do seberal days research trying to find it again if it still exists I will bow to your expertise. On another note and I can't proove it either is that a large portion of their .30 cal MG's were the water cooled. IIRC it was mentioned in the book Guadalcanal Diaries theat they sometimes ran out of water for them.

[zaugau]

I also saw some footage of Marines with grenade launcher adaptors on their carbines in Ken Burns' "The War".

[gunner]

You got right. It look`s like this grenadelauncher

[geberl]

Jim,

From what I had read and been told, I knew the Marines started out with 1903's and then changed over to the Garands but like youself have been somewhat surprised by the photos I've seen. Since I've been over here in the Pacific I had planned some island hopping of my own, leave permitting, to see some of the islands. Not sure know how many photos I've seen of Pacific island actions but it seems there were alot of marines carrying carbines, garands, thompsons, and other smgs. Definately not what I'd expected, but haven't really been researching the subject indepth either.

Gabriel

[JGaynor]

Jim since one good pic deserves another i thought you might like these. From a 1943 TM.

Jim