Feldgrau.net

One problem I should elaborate on in using the Rangers/ airborne as elite infantry is attrition. The units are organized lighter than a conventional infantry unit and with a shorter tail. In extended combat operations they suffer losses tha are very difficult to make up. Do they perform well? Absolu...

The Marines were normally aboard "capital ships," i.e. battleships,cruisers and carriers. Typically they were not on smaller vessels like destroyers. They could have been assigned for special missions though I suppose. It is my understanding that the Marines would typically man a turret or...

The history of taking elites, like the airborne or rangers, and assigning them piecemeal to bigger units is very poor. The elite inevetably are used up in roles they are ill suited for. The commander they are attached to uses them like his own troops, because that is what he understands. Or he uses ...

I have a book about the USS Indianapolis In Harm's Way. It is a different class but of similar displacement and crew complement. The inside cover of that lists all the crewmembers. The Marine complement of that ship was about 40. I doubt the Philadelphia was much different.

The US Army Ranger element was assigned to go ashore with the Commandoes mostly, a few were assigned to go with the Canadians. The men were split up and assigned to different units, rather than going ashore as a unit. The idea was that the Rangers, embryonic in their development, would gain combat e...

Tripoli was on eof the Barbary states, the US, including a fledgling Marine Corps fought them somewhere around 1800. I don't call exactly the dates, but it is not important. I know large Marine units were not used in the ETO/MTO what I was wondering was if this was a smaller (company size?) unit. Pe...

Recently someone posted that US Marines were used to seize a positon during the Torch landings. I have tried without sucess to find a source confirming this. I was wondering if anyone can confirm the Marines landing with the assault troops at Torch. I am guessing that the writer was confusing the Ma...

Reb, post it here I think we would all enjoy your stories.

What really puzzles me is, why didn't the US Army field more MG's? The Army TOE called for less than 1 MG per platoon in the infantry company. The USMC fielded 3 BAR's per squad, not quite like having an MG42 to a squad, but very effective. Why didn't the Army add more automatic weapons to the infan...

I believe OpVarsity, the Rhine crossing was a daytime jump. Also, the seizure of Corregidor in the PI was a daytime drop. All the other Allied drops were nighttime as far as I can remember. There were some early drops in North Africa, Maybe one was daylight drop. Not sure about Soviet Ops.

Of course it is always interesting to speculate what might have happened if John Browning hadn't died before finishing the development of the BAR, which languished for some 35 years after his death. Wouldn't it have been interesting to see the US Army in World War II with the M-240 as their standard...

US Army Women's Auxilary Corps, I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body. If I was feeling foolish, very common for me, I would probabably volunter for the Marines, Airborne, or Rangers. Who can resist the chance to die with the best?

There are some good points to assault guns, and they have been used in limited numbers by other nations after WWII. They also have disadvantages. The gun has a very limited traverse. Rotating the entire vehicle is not an advantage when you are in a concealed position. The position also has to be lar...

The '03 was used for 3 roles. 1) early in the war the '03 would have been used by many riflemen because M1's were not available for every man in the rapidly expanding Army. This probably would have been less likely by 1944. The Marines were not issuing M1's generally until 1943 (?), at least until a...

I have read and believe it is probably correct, that bazookas were issued to rifle squads. The riflemen were supposed to man the weapon when needed. As has been pointed out there was no specific authorization for a dedicated gun team. As to why the US used the BAR. It was available. The M1919A6 was ...