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Remember Bastogne


Utah Bob #35998

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My new M1941 field jacket came in so I thought I'd run a few clips through the M1 in this frosty (but not as bad as '44) weather. At least the 25mph winds we've been having all day slacked off. ;)

Garand12-15-2020.jpg

 

I found the clips but the brass will have to wait for the spring thaw. ;)

 

 

Snow on the table so I used my custom bench rest. :D

 

Garand12-15-2020Rest.jpg

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1 minute ago, Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 said:

Tomorrow is the 76th anniversary of the beginning of the battle. December 16, 1944.  :FlagAm:

Yup. But I got no time for shootin tomorrow.

101ST.JPG

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12 minutes ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

Make a satisfactory "Ping", did it?:lol::blush:

More than one. ;)

 

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1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Lookin’ good there UB. 
 

I gotta get my Garand to the range soon.:)

If you don’t shoot it, you’ll open the safe one day and all that will be left is a sling. Like an old soldier it will have just faded away.

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U.S. troops of the 28th Infantry Division, who have been regrouped in security platoons for the defense of Bastogne, Belgium, march down a street in Bastogne. Some of these soldiers lost their weapons during the German advance in this area. Signal Corps Photo
Image may contain: 2 people, people standing, people walking and outdoor
 
 
 
 
 
 
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9 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

If you don’t shoot it, you’ll open the safe one day and all that will be left is a sling. Like an old soldier it will have just faded away.

Well then, I guess I better get cracking. :)

 

My Garand sits at the very front of my safe. No other rifle can stand before it. ;)

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  • On Dec. 22, four German couriers approached American lines under a flag of truce, carrying a message "from the German commander to the American commander."
    Asserting that Bastogne was "encircled," the note gave McAuliffe, who was acting commander of the 101st in the absence of Maj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor, two hours to surrender or face "total annihilation." It offered "the privileges of the Geneva Convention" to the would-be POWs.
    What came next would be one of World War II's seminal moments.
    As [Vincent] Vicari, McAuliffe's personal aide, recalls it 60 years later, "General Mac read the note and said, 'Aw, nuts.' Then he asked, 'What should I tell them?' "
    Lt. Col. Harry W. O. Kinnard, the division operations officer, said, "Why not tell them what you just said?"
    "What did I just say?"
    "You said, 'Nuts,' " Kinnard replied.
    McAuliffe scribbled a reply:
"To the German commander.
Nuts!
From the American commander."
He handed the message to Lt. Col. Joseph Harper, who had escorted the couriers.
To the Germans who didn't understand the Yankee colloquialism, Harper explained: "It means the same thing as 'Go to hell.' "
While World War II historian Barry Turner says McAuliffe's one-word riposte "lost something in translation," others have speculated that "nuts" might be a sanitized version of what the tough paratroop general actually said. Not so, Vicari says.
"General Mac was the only general I ever knew who did not use profane language," he said in a telephone interview. " 'Nuts' was part of his normal vocabulary."
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3 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Well then, I guess I better get cracking. :)

 

My Garand sits at the very front of my safe. No other rifle can stand before it. ;)

:FlagAm:

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Dad was in an Engineering Battalion outside of Bastogne when it was under siege. He said they were told to build and take up a defensive position on the road leading to Bastogne.  He said the heaviest gun they had was a light machine gun. 

 

521855799_DadWWIIphotoDec2020.thumb.jpg.50e340289bd5c65fba3e9616889abe0a.jpg

 

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:
U.S. troops of the 28th Infantry Division, who have been regrouped in security platoons for the defense of Bastogne, Belgium, march down a street in Bastogne. Some of these soldiers lost their weapons during the German advance in this area. Signal Corps Photo
Image may contain: 2 people, people standing, people walking and outdoor
 
 
 
 
 
 

Unfortunatley your links all require logging into Facebook.  I dont do facebook.

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2 minutes ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said:

The GI front left is carrying a German machine gun?

Why not? More fire power if you need it, and he is a Captain, I suppose at least a company commander, so he can carry any thing he wants, I suppose. 

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1 hour ago, Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L said:

Unfortunatley your links all require logging into Facebook.  I dont do facebook.

 

I included the hashtags for completeness.   As long as the basic text and photograph shows i don't care about hashtags.

 

As for "I don't do Facebook, "  your loss.

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2 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

It's an M3 "Grease Gun". Strange how he's carrying two weapons while the GI on the far right has none.

I looked at the captain. He's got a carbine slung over his shoulder and an m3 grease gun across his chest. I thought he also had a holstered pistol, but I've decided what I thought was a holster is the glove on his right hand.

 

And I wondered why he had two guns and the guy next to him had no guns. But I thought, "you know, if I had two guns, and that guy over there had lost his, and I gave him one of my two guns, there's a good chance that he would lose it also. So if I had two guns and that other guy didn't have any guns then I would still have two guns."

 

Then I took a closer look at the unarmed guy. He looks to have a strap of some kind hung over his right shoulder. It could be a rifle sling. And there appears to be, maybe, the butt of a rifle sticking out about even with his right hip. So maybe he is not really unarmed. Just the way he's standing it's difficult to see his gun.

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2 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

It's an M3 "Grease Gun". Strange how he's carrying two weapons while the GI on the far right has none.

 

Looks the right front guy has a rifle slung. Torifle  butt is off to his right and the barrel is hidden behind his helmet. Looks to me the the 4 front right are carrying rifles along with 3 of the left front four. The second guy from the front left is hidden from view.

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13 minutes ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said:

Grease gun a souvenir? A lot of Lugers came home with them.

Grease gun M3 and M3A1 was made in USA to replace the costly Thompson. Same .45 ACP cartridge tho. 

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28 minutes ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said:

Grease gun a souvenir? A lot of Lugers came home with them.

 

Smuggling home US military equipment like a Grease Gun or M1 Carbine was pretty hard, but some managed to do it. M1911s were easier because they were so small. Lugers and other German weapons could easily be brought home as souvenirs as long as it wasn't a machine gun like an MP38 or Sturmgewer.

 

Of course these days you're not allowed to bring ANY weapons home as souvenirs no matter where they're from.

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