I have the MWO. No interpretation needed. Further, Change 1 to MWO W3 lowered the priority of this change from "earliest practicable date" to 31 Dec 45. No comprehensive status report has been located, but piles of anecdotal evidence makes it clear "...could have been" is a mischaracterization of the documented physical reality on the ground - a separate matter from any procedural requirement that started the ball rolling.Originally Posted by browningautorifle
Though exact numbers are unknown, Fabrique Nationale's immediate postwar work also included a requirement for rear sight replacement.
Returning to my hobby of pointing out the fallibility of drawing sweeping conclusions about logistics from photos, documents listing in detail the large quantities of rear sights replaced in the ETO's 1st and 35th Infantry Divisions in the spring of 1945 raise the question: how come these don't show up all over the place in photos? How come mentions of rear sight replacement in 13 other ETO Divisions don't find their way into photos?
As is often the case, this subject has been covered in CCNLs; #379 for FN rework, #382 for ETO field replacement, each from over five years ago. I guess not everybody got the memo.