What small arms on WWII battleships?

[Dave in NGA]

Say Ed, I own one of the Saratoga's 1903's. It's an SA#1014866 in very nice condition. I purchased it from a collector in St. Louis, MO back in 1965. It shoots amazingly good groups.

[Ed Byrns]

Dave
In fact your rifle is on page two of the National Archive Document concerning the
refit(AA guns) of the USS Saratoga at Bremerton.Yours is the third one I now know of.
Congratulations
Ed Byrns

[Marine A5 Sniper Rifle]

Interestingly, I have a picture of Admiral Stark inspecting the Marine detachment of the USS Washington, taken in June, 1942 preparatory to an inspection by King George VI on a visit to the ship - the Marines have M1s. This surprised me, given the fact that the FMF had M1903s.

The Marines started receiving M1's in 1939, but not at the rate they desired (3000 per month). Smaller deployed units got them first, as the Marines abhor mix and match.

jt

[Rick the Librarian]

Makes sense to me, although it appears that most shipboard units continued to use the M1903.

[rayg]

The Navy has always been one weapon behind all the other services. In the late 60's we had M1's Around 69 and 70 started seeing M14's. The Alabama was commissioned in early 1942 so I would say the shipboard rifles would have been the 1903's as the Garand was in short supply then. Just a guess.

Well there was a few years they were ahead. They adopted the 5 shot bolt action 1879 Remington Lee 45/70 rifle that was reloaded quickly using a 5 shot magazine with addition magazines carried in a waist belt at the time the Army was using the single shot Trapdoor. Then there was the 1895 Winchester Lee Navy that fired a high velocity flat shooting 6mm rd. and that was quickly reloaded with 5 shot clips with extra clips carried in a waist belt while the Krag rds were loaded one at a time into the side magazine. Then Navy fell behind a few years later after the Army adopted the 03. Ray

[PhillipM]

ALABAMA most likely had 03A3's ... possibly '03's. HIGHLY unlikely the ship had M1's. Marine Detachment most likely DID have M1's, but those were USMC rifles, NOT USN rifles.

M1's started to trickle into the Navy after VJ Day. The 1946 Landing Force Manual was the first with a section on the M1.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

I may be wrong, but I was not aware any service but the US Army purchased 03A3's during WWII.

[Rick the Librarian]

I've seen several pictures of sailors with M1903A3s. Plus, SRS has a number of listings for 03A3s that were assigned to ships.

[bigskybound]

Man, I wish we could have found one of those Remington-Lee belts for the magazines when we did the OLYMPIA exhibit. I have never seen that style.

[rayg]

Chances would be pretty slim in finding another khaki one. I haven't seen another one like it as long as I can remember nor have I heard of another one. There has to be more out there as my understanding is the Navy used a magazine belt for the RL since 1879 when the first model 1879 Rem Lee rifle was adopted. I saw a couple of blue belts like above but they were issued to Army or militia units for the later 30/40 Remington Lee.. The khaki one is a Navy one and for 45/70 magazines and cartridges for the Rem Lee rifle and it would be issued with that rifle as used by the sailors and marines on the Olympia. I can't imagine why you don't see more of those Rem Lee Navy belts around as the belts for the 6mm Navy Lee, even though some what scarce, can still be seen in collections or for sale. Ray

[Weasel]

The Navy probably was the biggest users of the A3 at the end of the war.

[Phil McGrath]

ALABAMA most likely had 03A3's ... possibly '03's. HIGHLY unlikely the ship had M1's. Marine Detachment most likely DID have M1's, but those were USMC rifles, NOT USN rifles.

M1's started to trickle into the Navy after VJ Day. The 1946 Landing Force Manual was the first with a section on the M1.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

Bob, I have a 1943 Blue Jacket Manual and it say's the M1 Garand is Not a Navy approved weapon.

[rayg]

I had a Blue Jacket Manual that listed and had a picture of 1941 Johnson in it. I can't remember the date of the manual, it must have been an early one though. I don't know what I did with it, as I can't find it, Ray

[Finestkind]

My uncle was on Diesel subs in the late 60's and early 70's and they were using 1903's and Thompsons. He used to tell us that he loved shooting the Thompsons.


Finestkind

[Fred]

Wow!