Span-Am weapons used MUCH later than thought!

[Captain Lee Bishop]

Look at this photo from WW2 (post-1942, from the details on the vehicles):
Focus on the MG’s manned by the men standing in the backs of the Jeeps. Those are M1895 Colt machine guns from the Spanish-American war era! They also look like they’re mounted on either camera or optic tripods. I know the home front dealt with older equipment but I wouldn’t have believed this if I wasn’t looking at the photo of it!

[Niederlander]

Hello!
     The Navy often had to make do with older and less desirable weapons, for the simple reason no one thought they'd have to face a first tier enemy force (SeaBees excepted).  The BAR in the near Jeep looks to be a pretty early one with the checkered forend, and the sailor in the third Jeep to the right has what looks to be a Reising submachine gun.  The Marine Corps considered it just a little better than the Cheu Chat (sp) of World War 1 infamy.  The vessel in the background looks to be pretty old, too.  Possibly even a sailing vessel from the looks of it.  Our old sailors would know better.  Neat photograph!

[Delmonico]

Any idea the source for the picture?  I'd guess a photo op of some sort, might even be some thing from Hollywood like a propaganda shoot.  Few in the general public would have known the differance.

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[Trailrider]

Howdy, Pards,
Could that ship be a Yangtze River patrol boat?  Maybe the Panay?  Could this be a PRE-WWII photo?  Check the boat between the larger ship and the dock.  Sure looks a bit dated.  White hats sitting just in front of the smaller boat appear to have rifles with LONG bayonets attached to Springfields(?)! Those longer bayonets were mostly cut down during WWII!  Fun guessing, regardless!

[Texas Lawdog]

Yep, That's a Reising alright. I carried one in my patrol car in the 70s, the thing shot good.

[Charles Isaac]

The first Jeep prtotype hit the scene in 1940 and the Reising came along sometime thereafter so that is late for a "Potato Digger" to still be in service. Still news to me and thanks for the picture.

I was wondering if there was enough room with that mount for the flapper type operating arm to swing underneath the gun! Been a while since I handled one.

Random thoughts, for what they are worth, Lewis guns were still used by the Marines and Navy in WWII. The Navy still issues the original wood stocked  M14 and the Marines use a Sage stocked railed match grade M14 as a combat marksmans rifle!

This is now and that was then. Small arms technology flew at light speed from the 1890s to a little after WWII. The M16 was adopted y the Air Force in 1962 -47 years ago-  and it's still standard issue for all services. How things have changed!

[Drydock]

Minesweepers in WW2 carried Krag infantry rifles in their armourys.  They were used to detonate swept mines, as the Krag round had excellent penetration, and the long rifles stabilized nicely on the rolling decks.  It is thought that the first American round fired off Normandy may well have come from one of these Krags.

[Captain Lee Bishop]

Could this be a PRE-WWII photo? 

Nope, not a chance at all of that. The Jeeps are Ford GPW Jeeps, the particular design didn't get put into production until early 1942 at the absolute earliest, as the front ends on models before that looked totally differenct. Other details on the Jeeps themselves strongly suggests to me they're probably late 42 or early 43 models but I won't go into that in detail.

[Old Top]

Capt. Bishop,

I would say that you are on the money with the early 43 estimate.  The tripod though looks like some of the long range binocular stands and made out of metal tube, if I remember correctly they were reinforced and welded to the body pan of the jeep.

Old Top

[Pony Racer]

Capt. - thanks for sharing that is a cool photo!!  Showed this photo to my father - who was Korea era enlisted, vietnam era officer in Navy.

While photo is before his time, he relayed that this looks like a typical picture of either a base patrol muster or pier master muster with security personnel present -  that he has seen elsewhere from same time frame.  He also mentioned that the amount of equipment needed to outfit Navy bases in the 40's especially in the Pacific starined available resources and anything that still worked, old trucks, weapons, aircraft, etc... was used

Heck while I was on ships in early 90's our preferred line throwing gun was still a 1903 springfield converted a bit for its new mission, the M-16 version did not have enough "umph" for anything other than training in good weather only.

When you had to get that tow line over or mooring lines in bad weather and wind - that ole springfield never failed my guys.  I even had to use it once due to the sensitivities of people parking their cars where they shouldn't have.

I didn't mean to - but i busted the heck out of someones window in their new truck that day - the admin staffer from the base, parked in a clearly marked no parking area, was not pleased but my skipper met him on the brow and took care of it.

PR