Remember Bastogne

[Utah Bob #35998 15,419]

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.

 

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.

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Utah Bob #35998

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 3,138]

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

 

That custom bench rest looks like a custom job. 

Edited December 15, 2020 by Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 786]

Make a satisfactory "Ping", did it?

[Utah Bob #35998 15,419]

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

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

Yup. But I got no time for shootin tomorrow.

[Utah Bob #35998 15,419]

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

Make a satisfactory "Ping", did it?

More than one.

 

[Pat Riot, SASS #13748 20,938]

Lookin’ good there UB. 
 

I gotta get my Garand to the range soon.

[Utah Bob #35998 15,419]

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.

[Subdeacon Joe 24,780]

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

#ww2uncovered #greatestgeneration #ww2 #worldwar2 #WorldWarII #WWII #usarmy #usarmyveteran #usarmysoldier #ETO

#battleofthebulge …

See More

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pat Riot, SASS #13748 20,938]

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. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 6,864]

Shoot it from a foxhole with two feet of snow.

[Charlie Harley, #14153 2,788]

"Well, buddy, just pull your tank in behind me. I'm the 82nd Airborne, and this is as far as the bastards are going!"

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 3,151]

• 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."

[Utah Bob #35998 15,419]

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. 

[Warden Callaway 4,480]

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. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Warden Callaway

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L 242]

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

#ww2uncovered #greatestgeneration #ww2 #worldwar2 #WorldWarII #WWII #usarmy #usarmyveteran #usarmysoldier #ETO

#battleofthebulge …

See More

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 3,138]

17 hours ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

Make a satisfactory "Ping", did it?

PINGS  are addictive, Buck!      

[irish ike, SASS #43615 1,051]

The GI front left is carrying a German machine gun?

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 3,138]

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. 

[irish ike, SASS #43615 1,051]

I wasn't questioning it. I was referring to the comment that GI's lost weapons so naturally you pick something up and use it. German machine gun. Which I understand out performed our Thompson's.

[Black Angus McPherson 419]

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

The GI front left is carrying a German machine gun?

 

Looks like a Grease Gun to me.  One of you guys that can blow up pictures to the size of a garage wall ought to be able to confirm.  (And maybe give the serial number )

 

Angus

[Sixgun Sheridan 4,170]

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

The GI front left is carrying a German machine gun?

 

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

[Subdeacon Joe 24,780]

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.

[Alpo 6,338]

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.

[Cypress Sun 2,645]

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.

[irish ike, SASS #43615 1,051]

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

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 3,138]

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. 

[Sixgun Sheridan 4,170]

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.