Quote:
Originally Posted by Faulkner
I would find this highly unlikely. By the time of Operation TORCH in November, 1942, it is highly unlikely that any Springfield Trapdoors would be in available to units, National Guard or otherwise. Also by then, the Krag was also declared obsolete and not considered a substitute standard weapon. I've never heard of an American unit taking any Krags overseas during WWII.
Interesting story though.
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If they were never turned in, I'm sure they'd be available. I don't think they ever actually used Krags, even if they were issued.
I don't know if you were ever on active duty, but you find VERY strange things in units that nobody cares about.
I was in 1/31 Infantry (M) at Camp Howze, ROK in '80 and '81. When I got there, the supply sergeant called the Chemical Center to find out what to do with the chemical vessicant(?) mixture he had on hand in a huge stack of bags that looked like bags of cement. This stuff was meant to be boiled in a 55gal. drum to produce a tar like substance into which your fatigues were meant to be dipped to make them "impervious" to chemical agents. The Chemical Center as much as called him a liar when he reported what he had. I had just come from the Infantry Officer's Basic Course and no such thing was even MENTIONED to us.
We also had on hand, infra-red binoculars, something also NEVER mentioned, either in ROTC or IOBC.
And on a collector's note, I had a Union Switch & Signal marked M1911A1 in my arms room when I was XO of a Basic Training company at Ft. Knox after I returned from Korea.