Garands in old WW2 Japanese movie

[VeeVee]

Here's a screen shot from an old Japanese propaganda movie made in 1943. It was titled Dawn of Freedom and as you can guess, the theme was Japanese = Friend, Americans = Bad. Nothing subtle about it in the movie.

But anyway they pulled some American POWs from Cabanatuan to act in it. Here's a screen shot from a scene where the Americans were supposed to be shooting a Filipino who just wanted to surrender to the Japanese. The rifles and props they used were of course those captured by the Japanese in Bataan.

Check out the garands!

click for bigger:

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[Calif-Steve]

Most likely Gas Trap Garands. Many were sent to the PI as soon as they were made. By the way, a proper supply of clips was NOT shipped over. The Garands had little impact in the combat.

[VeeVee]

Not everyone had garands, but two Philippine Scout Infantry regiments, the American 31st Infantry, and the 26th Cavalry PS had garands as their issue weapons. The Japanese complained about the firepower so I would think they made a difference. I did read that they had to conserve their enbloc clips but they must have had plenty enough to use as these units with M1's were repeatedly heavily engaged during the Bataan campaign. They couldn't have policed all their enblocs from the battlefields.

[smle-man]

I read that the 8 rd clipped ammo was shot off pretty quickly and from that point all ammo issue was in 5 rd clips. The M1 equipped units had to pick up expended clips and reload them. The supply of clips on hand rapidly diminished. Another problem was with the 1917 Enfield Rifles issued to the P.A.; many had bad extractors and would not extract fired cases. The soldiers were reduced to poking out the fired case with a long stick before chambering the next round. The book that this was mentioned in was I believe "Our Last Ditch".

[Art]

Bataan wasn't the only case of M1 clip shortages. At the start of the Korean war the troops that went to Pusan had clipped ammunition but the replacement ammo all came in cartons. Troops went through a period, thankfully short, of having to police up and re use their clips in Korea too.

[VeeVee]

I found this interesting quote about the M1 made by a Bataan vet...

---excerpt---
SR: How long were you in the defense line before you started getting attacked?

TC: Oh, man, we was there about ten days, and then we went to (Abu cay Hacienda?), we had an engagement with them, and the only thing that saved us was the M-1 rifle. We had good firepower.

EC: Can you describe your first combat experience?

TC: Frightening, man, frightening.

EC: Did you see them? Did you actually get to see the enemy?

TC: No, I heard them when they made their Banzai charge. They scream like banshees, that will scare the hell out of you, but, you stiffen up because, "I got to do it." You know, nobody leaves the line, you got to do it, you stay there and fire away as you can, and the firepower is what prevented them to come in. You know, you take five guys with an M1 rifle, they got good fire. They could hold down a Japanese company of two-hundred-and-fifty to three-hundred men, because that's tremendous, you can't get through that wall of fire.

---Full Text: ---
Thomas G. Calderone, US Army, 31st Infantry Regiment, POW & Corregidor Survivor

[Rick the Librarian]

I would agree with VeeVee that the M1s had quite an effect. It influenced the Japanese enough that they attempted to make a copy of it

[Calif-Steve]

Rick, I think the Japanese didn't make a copy until 1945. You must remember the Japanese High Command was very old and very conservative and a bit slow. Also no after action reports made it out of the many island battles and Japanese had no real idea of the damage a Garand could inflict. The High Command's vision of the battlefield was very cloudy. The early (1942) PI losses were not the fault of the Garand, just as any "victories" weren't the result of the Garand. You must remember a rather small Japanese Army defeated a rather large combined US/PI force. Just too complicated for 1-2 sentences to expalin. Suffice it to say, without a large supply of 8 round clips, the Garand was in trouble.

[Calif-Steve]

I would like to adda personal observation. When I was in Viet Nam (1971) I served as an Advisor. Our Regular Army Viet Namese had M16's and tons of ammo. However, our RF/PF's had Garands and BAR's and very little ammo. For whatever reason, .30 cal. was had to come by. Clips were equally hard to find and in the hot, humid climate clips rusted immediately. The VC only had AK and SKS's and never had a clip problem. "The more things change the more they stay the same."

[Jim K]

FWIW, I think from the shape of the front sight guards that the top rifle in that picture is a gas trap, and probably the second is also. The third, I can't tell.

Jim