USMC: Thompson vs. Reising SMG's

[THE PILGRIM]

It's a JU-52.
Ordnanceman beat richardman1992 by a silly millimeter.
Now we can work on the stranger, nothing to do with Merl Haggard's band.
Some of you guys can probably do it without a picture.
And of course it's another non-US plane.

 

[BOMBTEC]

Canal Zone USMC

Were US fighters stationed in Panama to prevent a Japanese aircraft carrier from launching an attack? They might have even been able to launch Betty bombers from a carrier, as the USS Hornet did B-25's in the Doolittle raid.


Which fighters were used, if so?

Early on when the Japanese had a carrier advantage, an air raid on the canal was a definite possibility.
Post Midway, a commando raid or sub launched air raid were possibilities.
The Canal Zone was gunned up and armed all the way!
A number of planes types were stationed there.
The P-40 was probably there the most and longest.
This one is close to being the weirdest. There may be one even stranger.
So can you name strange and stranger?
Here's the strange.[/QUOTE]

The 3 engine air plane in this post is a Junker JU52-3m a German Transport/Paratrooper aircraft. It wouldn't have been there. I had the pleasure of being a Crew Member on the one that Martin Caden brought back from Panama.

 

[g5m]

I had the pleasure of talking to an elderly Marine who fought in the Banana wars. He liked the Thompson.

Also, a LEO friend owned a Reising. He liked it very much. The mags were a bit low on capacity, as has been stated. (12's and 20's).

BTW, there were still Thompsons in the armory at the Coast Guard base where I was stationed in 1970. Later, an FBI agent told me that all federal agencies had been instructed to turn in their Thompsons for destruction. About 1978 IIRC.

 

[6thtexas]

IIRC the Marines had Thompsons in Nicaragua in the late '20s -early 30's. There is a photo of Chesty puller holding one while stationed in Nicaragua. I have it in a book somewhere around here.

I suspect with the onset of WWII there weren't enough Thompsons to go around.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Early on when the Japanese had a carrier advantage, an air raid on the canal was a definite possibility.


The 3 engine air plane in this post is a Junker JU52-3m a German Transport/Paratrooper aircraft. It wouldn't have been there. I had the pleasure of being a Crew Member on the one that Martin Caden brought back from Panama.

But it was there! Remember I said this was a strange one.
The JU-52 was tail number 42-52883. The Army called the C-79.
It was stationed at Howard Field and flown by the 20th Transportation Sqdn.

 

[reach147]

This fits here. Been posted before, but enjoy.

Very nice, that is some serious money now

 

[dennis2146]

I enjoy shooting mine. Always draws a lot of curiosity at the range


There was a really great article in the December 2000 issue of Small Arms Review. It was titled: "Ordnance Committee Meeting, 23 December, 1943". In it, Lt. Col VH Kulak, USMC, gives his opinion of various weapons being used by Marines in the Pacific Theater. He indicates that later models of the Reising were, "...accurately fabricated and are quite satisfactory. They function well and as the .45 goes it is quite acceptable." He was more critical of the Thompson: "It is much too heavy...uncomfortable to carry and is does not function well." He also discusses the 1903 Springfield, Garand, Johnson, BAR, Johnson LMG, M1A1 Carbine and the Bazooka.

With due respect that is Victor H. Krulak you are talking about.

Dennis

 

[m75rlg]

BTW, there were still Thompsons in the armory at the Coast Guard base where I was stationed in 1970. Later, an FBI agent told me that all federal agencies had been instructed to turn in their Thompsons for destruction. About 1978 IIRC.

No kidding! We still had M1 Garands at Base Miami Beach until late 1973/early 74. I remember seeing the guys at the machine shop cutting up brand new M16s that had been confincated from Alpha 66 and we couldn'g get them!

One good point when we finally got the M16 was that the gunner's mate gave me a pretty good size box of spare Garand parts that weren't on his books because he knew I owned a Garand!

 

[Reloader Fred]

My Dad was stationed at Ewa Marine Air Station, Hawaii, on December 7th, 1941, when the Japanese attacked and destroyed all their planes (Brewsters and Wildcats). He was assigned to VMF-121, and in October, 1942, he and his half of the squadron landed on Guadalcanal, where they endured nightly bombing runs by Betty bombers and shelling from Japanese artillery. He said Guadalcanal was worse than the attack on Pearl Harbor, as far as he was concerned, as it went on day and night.

He told me about one night in particular when they got word that Japanese infiltrators were on the airfield and he and 9 other Marines were issued Thompson SMG's with 50 round drum magazines and told to check around the revetments for infiltrators. When they got out there, a Betty bomber happened to be flying over and dropped a flare for taking night photography. Out on the runway was a platoon of Japanese, marching in formation, and calling cadence in English, which is something the Marines never did there during that time. After all, they were in a war zone and under attack most of the time.

Dad said the NCO in charge of the detail ordered them to open fire and they all emptied their Thompsons at the Japanese formation, killing them all. He said the Japanese troops would sneak in at night and steal food, since they were having problems getting resupplied out in the jungle. He also said if it hadn't been for the food the Marines had captured from the Japanese, they would have all gone hungry....

Dad passed away on December 2nd, 2014, with me at his side. He was 95 years old. He was truly one of the Greatest Generation, and I will forever miss him.

Semper Fi, Dad.

Fred

 

[M14sRock]

One of the issues I've heard of in regards to the Reisings was that they rusted easily. Another was that the mags were not heat treated and they needed to be tuned to work with different guns.

But the vets I've spoken with who used them said they were reliable and easy to use.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

My old Buddy Frank was a F4F pilot at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal .
Frank said that they would take a Tommy Gun with them when they went down to a freshwater creek to bath.
They was a possibility of a Japanese straggler, but the primary danger were the crocodiles.
They had lost their fear of man (if they ever had any) and they had acquired a taste for human flesh.

 

[zeno338]

My brother in-law who passed away a few years ago resided in Somerville, New Jersey. He fought on the "Canal". Jerry was a Marine scout sniper and
he told me many times that he used a Thompson sub machine gun.

Zeke

 

[LoneWadhi]

USMC Thompson

My Dad joined the Marines the day after Pearl Harbor.

His first duty was in the Panama Canal Zone. Searching foreign vessels before they entered the locks. Had the Japanese taken a freighter through, full of explosives and damaged the Canal...Could have lengthened the war by years.

He had access to and they carried; 1911's, 1903 bolt guns, 1897 Win pump Riot guns, and M-1 Thompsons. But he only recalled stick mags for the Tommy guns, no drums.

FN in MT

A friend of my father's was a helmsman in the Merchant Marine and told me that when he went through the Panama Canal a Marine stood behind him with a Thompson SMG to kill him if he began to steer the ship into the Canal to disable it.

 

[DWalt]

A friend of my father's was a helmsman in the Merchant Marine and told me that when he went through the Panama Canal a Marine stood behind him with a Thompson SMG to kill him if he began to steer the ship into the Canal to disable it.

Not entirely implausible. I had a USAF vet who worked for me about 35 years ago. He was stationed in a nuclear ICBM silo. One of his duties was to shoot the guy sitting at the control panel if he refused to punch the "Launch" button if the orders came down for him to do so.

 

[LoneWadhi]

Marines had Thompsons clear back in Bannana Wars, but didn't
have them in the numbers to support numbers needed early in
war. I have a book that has all kinds of secondary issue weapons
purchased during WW2 as stop gap measures by allies when they
were caught short of issue weapons. Marines had some Johnson
LMGs that they prized. They weren't happy when they had to
turn them in.

The First Special Service Force was issued the Johnson LMG instead of BARs. They called them JohnnyGuns and liked them very much.

 

[up2ztop]

Were US fighters stationed in Panama to prevent a Japanese aircraft carrier from launching an attack? They might have even been able to launch Betty bombers from a carrier, as the USS Hornet did B-25's in the Doolittle raid.


Which fighters were used, if so?

Early on when the Japanese had a carrier advantage, an air raid on the canal was a definite possibility.
Post Midway, a commando raid or sub launched air raid were possibilities.
The Canal Zone was gunned up and armed all the way!
A number of planes types were stationed there.
The P-40 was probably there the most and longest.
This one is close to being the weirdest. There may be one even stranger.
So can you name strange and stranger?
Here's the strange.[/QUOTE]
Ford Tri-Moter

 

[Muley Gil]

Don't forget that Melvin Johnson Jr was a Marine Corps reserve officer.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Ford Tri-Moter[/QUOTE]

Good guess but no cigar!
You need to read the previous posts like 38, 39, 40.
Remember I warned Weird!

 

[nuubee]

As a young teenager, I took a hunter safety course back around 1970? One of the firearms they had for us to practice handling safely was a Thompson (probably a model 1928, although I'm not positive). It was from the Lane county, Oregon, Sheriff's dept. inventory, and the deputy who was there said that it was for possible use during riots.

I can't get to my copy of 'Ordnance went up front' by Roy Dunlap right now, but I would imagine that he had something to say about both the Reising and the Thompson.

 

[N7BLW]

Were US fighters stationed in Panama to prevent a Japanese aircraft carrier from launching an attack? They might have even been able to launch Betty bombers from a carrier, as the USS Hornet did B-25's in the Doolittle raid.


Which fighters were used, if so?

Early on when the Japanese had a carrier advantage, an air raid on the canal was a definite possibility.
Post Midway, a commando raid or sub launched air raid were possibilities.
The Canal Zone was gunned up and armed all the way!
A number of planes types were stationed there.
The P-40 was probably there the most and longest.
This one is close to being the weirdest. There may be one even stranger.
So can you name strange and stranger?
Here's the strange.[/QUOTE]
That's a flippin' Ford Trimotor. They were scraping the bottom of the barrel about then, so anything that could get into the air was used!