misc weapons question

[rjinwootton]

when i was an anti aircraft gunner[>:] we were issued with the standard assault rifle that the infantry used albeit with not that much ammo[:@]....i seem to recall every soldier from the cooks to the clerks were also issued with the standard issue assault rifle because at the end of the day if you are in the army doing whatever you are still a basic soldier..............so my question is this......why are units like drivers and gunners only issued pistols and misc weapons(even tank crews i believe have assault guns with shorter barrels but i'm not sure)when at the least they should have rifles x crew size so that they can at least be used as poor 2nd rate infantry as i could have?[&:]

why would a truck driver be armed with a pistol driving to the front....or was ww2 different[:(]

[rjinwootton]

sorry assauly guns should read assault rifles

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: rjinwootton

when i was an anti aircraft gunner[>:] we were issued with the standard assault rifle that the infantry used albeit with not that much ammo[:@]....i seem to recall every soldier from the cooks to the clerks were also issued with the standard issue assault rifle because at the end of the day if you are in the army doing whatever you are still a basic soldier..............so my question is this......why are units like drivers and gunners only issued pistols and misc weapons(even tank crews i believe have assault guns with shorter barrels but i'm not sure)when at the least they should have rifles x crew size so that they can at least be used as poor 2nd rate infantry as i could have?[&:]

why would a truck driver be armed with a pistol driving to the front....or was ww2 different[:(]

There was alot of debate about this. Different services and nations carried different weapons. The Germans and early war Soviet second line troops had a mess of weapons. So to consolidate it they just added "Misc weapons"
I have always understood that this covers pistols, carbines and sub machine guns.

[KG Erwin]

Right, it depends on the nation. In the 8.2 USMC, secondary weapons for crew-served MGs and 60mm Mortars are Thompson SMGs. In the US Army, you could have either a Thompson or an M1 Carbine. Given the close-in nature of Pacific fighting, the Thompsons were prized possessions for use against Japanese infiltrators, since they had a greater knockdown punch than the carbines .

[Warmonger]

Just a barely relevant note:

I was an M1A1 Tank Gunner and my issued weapon was a 9mm pistol. The only rifle in the crew was the loader's. If we had ever abandoned our tank, we would have been just as useless as those bailed tank crews are in the game. [;)]

[KG Erwin]

Warmonger, that is a very relevant note in SPWaW terms. However, it somewhat begs the question: why would you put your truck and jeep drivers in harm's way? I recently had my HQ vehicle destroyed by a mortar round in my long campaign. You can't lead from the rear, can you? I had to bail out, so no one is guaranteed safety at the SPWaW level.

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

Warmonger, that is a very relevant note in SPWaW terms. However, it somewhat begs the question: why would you put your truck and jeep drivers in harm's way? I recently had my HQ vehicle destroyed by a mortar round in my long campaign. You can't lead from the rear, can you? I had to bail out, so no one is guaranteed safety at the SPWaW level.

I was playing MC:DF today and poor Col. Diestel was strafed and bombed by a nasty British Warhawk. Luckily his unit just took one casulty but his Mercedes staff car is scarrted aroundbout the desert.

[KG Erwin]

Yes, I understand FJ. The first Sherman M4A1 delivered to my force will belong to my Executive Officer unit (B0), in other words, my transport. I wanna start kicking some Jap butts from the front lines.

[Billy Yank]

When I was in the Army, I got to meet a group of WWII MPs who were at Fort Hood to check out their modern counterparts. They were quite surpised to see that MP teams were now armed with rifles (one w/grenade launcher) and driving around in a HMMV w/pintle mount machine gun. According to them, the only time they were issued rifles was on prisoner guard duty, and even then, they had very minimal training with them. Another thing was that most of them had medical problems that rendered them unfit for infantry assignments.

Also remember a lot of the transport troopers were black, and weren't trusted with weapons.

[KG Erwin]

ORIGINAL: Billy Yank


Also remember a lot of the transport troopers were black, and weren't trusted with weapons.

Hmm, considering the context of the times, this may indeed be true, at least as far as some ultra-conservative elements in the US military were concerned. I never thought about that. However, before anyone gets riled up over this, don't forget the contributions to the war effort made by black combat units. I want to put this matter to rest right now, before anyone takes exception.