Quick! Your a USGI in WWII!

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P99AS9

New member
You're being shipped off to Europe to fight the Nazis. You will be battling at short, medium, and long range. You're issued one service weapon of your choice, along with a Colt M1911A1. Choices:

M1 Garand - .30-06
M1 Carbine - .30 Carbine
M1A1 Thompson - .45ACP
M1918 BAR - .30-06
M3 "Grease Gun" - .45ACP
Deployable Browning M1919A4 - .30-06
Springfield M1903 - .30-06

Which one and why?
 
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Dre_sa

New member
I'd take the BAR, mostly because I like the idea.

It's big, it's accurate if what I've been told is true, it works on the 30-06. relatively slow ROF.

and yes, it's heavy and would be a pain to lug around the battle field, but I think it would be worth it.
 
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P99AS9

New member
I'll let the BAR man attract the enemy fire
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LMAO :D


I'd take an Thompson. Full auto, 30 round mags, accurate, reliable, and plus it shares ammo with your sidearm! The only down side I see is that it isn't great for long range.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
Castle_Romeo.jpg
 
K

kodiakbeer

Moderator
Not to nit-pick, but if you were a USGI fighting Nazis, wouldn't that be considered the eastern front?
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You'd then be a Soviet, and your range of choices would change to Mosin Nagant, PPSH, SVT-40, etc.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
"Umm... for US forces storming Europe from the west (France), the fight against Germany is universally referred to as the eastern front. Thanks for playing."

Huh?

Generally the United States did not refer to "fronts" to designate combat areas. Our term was Theater of Operations, or simply a theater. Germany had the Eastern Front and the Western Front.

From Wikipedia - The European Theater of Operations (ETO), is the term used in the United States to refer to US operations north of Italy and the Mediterranean coast, in the European Theatre of World War II.


Campaigns were also used, but generally to denote operations in a theater - North African Campaign (African Theater), Italian Campaign (Mediterranean Theater), Philippine Campaign (Pacific, or South Pacific Theater) - although combat in those areas could be quite extensive in area.
 
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mavracer

New member
Mike, notice I said "universally." Regarding WWII, the "Eastern Front" refers to fighting in Europe and Africa, regardless of where you stood. This is true for any treatise on the war.

The OP mentioned the "western front" and fighting Nazis. I corrected him, that it would be the "eastern front."
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no the eastern front would have been the front lines between Russia and Germany. the OP is correct if you were a USGI fighting Nazis you would be fighting on the western front in the european theator of operations.

copied from wikipedia
The Western Front of World War II was generally restricted to the same geographic regions as during World War I. During the war the front moved much further, as far West as the English Channel and as far East as the line which would become the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Although fighting took place in Norway and Italy these are not usually included as part of the Western Front but as separate campaigns.
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mavracer

New member
No, but that's okay if you choose to use descriptors that disagree with 90% of the literature on the topic, because you think it makes sense. Cheers.
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I belive your the one mistaken
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theater of war between the European Axis powers, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Croatia, Finland (not an Axis member) and the Soviet Union which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945.
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Oh ya I'll take a M1 Carbine so's I can be on a crew supported weapon.
 
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Dannyl

New member
I'll go with the BAR.
It has the advantage of the 30-06, not as heavy as the machine-gun, and has the advantage that you can change a magazine anytime, not like the Garand that has to run dry before reloading.

I prefer to be able to "top up" when it suits me and with one in the chamber.

Brgds,
Danny
 
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kraigwy

New member
not like the Garand that has to run dry before reloading
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Not True: There is a button on the left side of the reciever that when pushed ejects the clip and remaining rounds. Then you can just slip in a full clip.
 
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DustyBottoms

New member
Give me the Garand.
Best combat rifle ever made.
Accurate at any range.

I used to shoot 'em in National Match - 3 years.
Best darn rifle I've ever had the pleasure of competing with.
 
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ofitg

New member
Years ago, an old ex-Marine told me that they would choose the shortest, skinniest guy to carry the BAR - he was a more difficult target.

When everybody else was popping away with semiauto Garands and bolt-action Mausers, the BAR was a "bullet magnet".
 
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Old Grump

Member in memoriam
M1 Garand, any flavor and 1911A1 any flavor in a European theater.

M1941 Johnson and 1911A1 any flavor in a Western Pacific theater.

Having lugged a BAR around for awhile I can say with certainty that I would only do it again if you had a gun pointed to my head. One advantage to being old and slow is that nobody will ever ask me to do that anymore. Fun to shoot but ye Gods that sucker got heavier every minute you carried it and no place was ever on level ground, it was always rough and up hill. Even if it wasn't uphill it seemed to be.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
Well, I guess it really isn't worth his time...

That 90% figure, though?

Off by about.... 90%.

None of the works in either my or my Father's library refer to the eastern & western fronts as being anything other than German designators.

That said, I'll still stick with my trusty Mark 1 A Bomb.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
"Not True: There is a button on the left side of the reciever that when pushed ejects the clip and remaining rounds. Then you can just slip in a full clip."

And, despite what is normally said about the Garand, it IS possible to "top up the magazine."

I've seen more than one person do it.

It's not particularly easy or fast, though, and requires both hands, one to hold the bolt open, the other to fumble with trying to force cartridges into the clip. As one guy told me, doing it with cold or wet hands probably would result in fingers being crushed between the bolt and breech face.

Ouch.
 
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