I'll start with the Boys Rifle. That's not a small gun for a boy, Boys designed it. It was an anti-tank rifle and it weighed 35 pounds, so it needed a man and a boy to carry it.
It was a British (also Canadian built) .55 cal bolt action rifle.
In US forces, it was a chosen and favorite weapon of the Marine Raiders.
The Raiders were supposed to be Hit and run outfit. I say supposed to be because some of their most memorable combat was in the standard infantry defensve role at Guadacanal.
So they selected arms that could be somewhat easily carried.
This meant they were light on Mortars and machine guns.
So they carried the Boys for long range shooting.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_anti-tank_rifle

Attached Images

image.jpg (38.7 KB, 122 views)

__________________
NRA LIFE MEMBER

Several thousand Winchester Model 1894 Carbines in .30WCF were purchased for use by guards at military and government facilities. Stamped with the Ordnance Department seal. Most were released as surplus after the war. I have seen a couple of them.

OSS officers were frequently equipped with High Standard .22 pistols equipped with Maxim-design suppressors.

Colt 1903 .32ACP pistols were produced without serial numbers and equipped with suppressors for clandestine use.

We air-dropped many thousands of the Liberator .45 single-shot pistols into occupied Europe. The idea was to use those for assassinations of German troops and/or a means of putting down a soldier in order to obtain his rifle. Completely unmarked, mostly sheet metal stampings, cost a couple of dollars each.

Thousands of Remington 513-T Match-Master .22 rifles were shipped to Russia under the Lend Lease Program. Intended for rifle training, but the Russians liked them as urban sniper rifles.

Many other common firearms were purchased and used in some capacity or another during WW2.

Here's a not recent photo of me shooting a Boys out in the Big Cypress swamp. The mud on my jeans is from setting fence posts and that's a Chiefs Special in a Berns-Martin Lightnin' triple draw holster. Good equipment, even as a feckless youth.
I've shot it several times since then and am always on the lookout for ammunition at shows. It crops up every now and then.
Thanks for the memories.
Regards,
turnerriver

__________________
turnerriver

The .55 Boys cartridge looks like a 375 H&H mag on steroids! It is belted ans about the size of a 50 BMG shell. A LGS has one converted to 50 BMG, they must want too much for it, they've had it for sale for 20 years!

A Bangalore Torpedo - An explosive charge placed in one or several connecting tubes used by Combat Engineers to clear obstacles.

Roommate and I had one in college.
We first tried it at the dump, back when shooting rats at the town dump was possible, late 60's.
Was almost a HEY WATCH THIS moment, beer was involved!
We did not fire it much, poor college kids, expensive ammo.
No luck on the rats, Boyes doesn't follow fast or even slow rats well.
Did create enough bang on old appliances to make the rats run out of hiding, so the various .22's we had got a workout!
Somebody called the sheriff, and the deputy that came out thought it was pretty cool, and he fired it once.
Back in the day in,the south was pretty good!

__________________
Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

I read some time ago of an American soldier who carried a Colt Woodsman on the shores of France till the end of the war. As he said "I put it to good use on many occasions". I assume this was a private purchase gun, but I do have a Heiser shoulder holster in my collection that is for a Colt Woodsman Match Target that has an officers name and serial number and Army Air Corps markings etched into it.