Why did the marines use these?
>>62918266Because the Dutch had ordered a fuck-ton of them which had been built in the US but not shipped over to the Dutch when the the Nederlands were invaded and occupied.Since they were chambered for standard US ammo, and they were just sitting around in a US warehouse, the US Gov seized them and issued them to the US marines who were short on Semi-auto rifles. That way at least some of the marines got an upgrade from the m1903 Springfield rifles they'd otherwise be issued.
>>62918276oh ok
>>62918266>>62918276Also there were a shortage of M1 Garands at the time because contracts had not yet been issued to many of the companies that would make them during the course of the war. The Army was prioritized for M1s because they adopted it in 1936, while the USMC had still retained the M1903 Springfield.
>>62918266BECAUSE THEY ARE SICK, BRAH
>>62920122Been awhile since this one's popped up for sale.
>>62920122I cry every time.
>>62920089That makes sense. My grandfather was a Marine in the Pacific and used a 1903. I always thought the 1903 he had hanging up was THE one he had used, but I found out when he died that it was a later purchase he had essentially bought as a wall decoration.Funny thing, he was super proud of his service but avoided any of the really brutal stuff out there. My other grandfather was in the merchant marines and pretty much a lunatic and refused to ever talk about it. All I knew is he was up near the Arctic for part of it.So, because he was an asshole and crazy, I always used to think: "damn, the one that was in the real shit loved it and is super proud, and this dude got the easy post and cannot get over having to stack boxes in the cold." I was an adult before I realized that the merchant marines had the highest death rate of any service and that the arctic routes were particularly horrific because they had to make it all the way to Archangel in the summer, when it was free of ice, but this meant sailing out in merchant convoys in extremely rough seas while the Luftwaffe had pretty much constant daylight to fly sorties. So perhaps it really did suck.
>>62920480They are both badasses who unknowingly contributed to the death of White culture.