The US Marines' Weird Mix of Rifles/SMGs

[KG Erwin]

For the benefit of those guys who are confused by the bewildering mix of weapons in the early-war USMC, let me explain.

The rapid expansion of the USMC after December 1941 led to a shortage of weapons, so basically the Corps was left to scrounge as best they could.

The reason for this is that the Corps didn't have its own Weapons Procurement Branch -- that was in the hands of the Department of the Navy, who had its own hands full, so it was left up to the Army to provide weapons as it saw fit. In other words, the Marines were left to their own devices.

This is how the Marines made arrangements to buy the Johnson M1941 Rifles for its new Parachute and Raider battalions. Melvin Johnson's design was in fact in direct competition with John Garand's for becoming the primary combat rifle of the US Army. As we all know, Garand won the contract, so the Marines bought up the Johnson model. Johnson had also designed a light machine gun, and the Marines bought those, too.

Both of these designs were actually quite good, but as the budgetary constraints began to loosen, the USMC was able to standardize its weapons and the Johnsons were phased out.

This leaves the Reising SMG. Before the war, the Thompson SMG was the standard. When WWII began, there were simply not enough "Tommy Guns" to go around, so the Marines independently contracted with Eugene Reising to produce a cheaper alternative. The Marines bought thousands of these, but they were not popular amongst the troops.

It wasn't a bad design in of itself, but it was unsuited to the rugged conditions in the South Pacific, and showed a propensity to jam.

They were withdrawn from frontline service in 1943, but were still used by rear-area services and the surplus was sold to other countries.

[RayM]

Hello KG,
 
Back on-line with the forum. Hope your holidays went well. Anything new in the SPWaW USMC area?
 
Ray

[robot]

Gunny was the reising model a 45 caliber and did it have the little hatch type window on the right side. It had to be up and open to fire looked like an oil can with extensions. Took basic in 1948 so dont remember what the name of this mg was I took it with. Thought you might know even tho it may not be a Reising mg.

[Riun T]

Your probably talking about the M3 grease gun robot look it up on wiki or google I'm sure thats the only one with the chamber cover plate {window}[;)]

[robot]

Yes yes that name brings back memories of firing and trying to control the arc of bullets thanx riun.

[KG Erwin]

ORIGINAL: RayM

Hello KG,

Back on-line with the forum. Hope your holidays went well. Anything new in the SPWaW USMC area?

Ray

Hello, and welcome back, Ray. If you don't already have it, I'd suggest getting the SPWaW Enhanced Mod. Several tweaks were done in ALL of the OOBs. You'll have to register at the Depot to d/l it.

[KG Erwin]

ORIGINAL: robot

Yes yes that name brings back memories of firing and trying to control the arc of bullets thanx riun.

Yeah, it must've been the M3. The Reising was removed from service.