The M1 Carbine Holster

The other day my co-host on the Fighting On Film podcast, Robbie McGuire, shared an interesting video of some US troops rehearsing embarkation and debarkation of a landing craft. Not only is the video interesting as the practice landing craft is made of concrete but also because it features an accoutrement that I’d never seen before.

The footage shows what appears to be a US artillery battery practicing for amphibious operations, possibly Operation Overlord. The battery is equipped with M101 105mm Howitzers, while their GMC trucks are mounted with M2 .50 calibre Brownings. Most of the men are armed with M1 carbines. The carbines aren’t slung but holstered. 

Below are some more still from the footage that show how the men have their carbines holstered:

The holsters are worn on the right side and appear to clip into their M1936 pistol belts. While similar in concept to the M1 Carbine canvas jump holsters which could hold a paratrooper’s M1A1 with a folding stock these are designed for full-size, fully-stocked M1 Carbines. 

The holsters appear to allow the carbine to move with the wearer’s body quite well, with the stock fitting under the armpit. Most of the enlisted men of the battery appear to be wearing them and are carrying out tasks such as manhandling the howitzers and running on and off the ‘landing craft’ with little hinderance. 

Some, however, do have their holster’s slung as seen in these images below:

It appears that at least one full gun team have their carbines and holsters more conventionally slung with muzzles up. Perhaps the various gun teams were testing and experimenting with the new holsters. The official manual, FM 23-7 - US Carbine, Caliber 30, M1, for the carbine makes no mention of a holster for the weapon - even if it was designed initially as a sidearm for rear echelon troops. However, in summer 1942, the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center did mention it in a unit-authored appendix which noted: 

I’ve never seen footage of the M1 Carbine holsters before and have been able to find little written about them in either primary or secondary sources - some refer to it as experimental. They’re an interesting accoutrement for support troops who had manual roles to play that made carrying a weapon difficult. 

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Sergeant M.C. “Wagger” Thornton, 17 Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion 52nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, who used a PIAT to destroy the lead armoured vehicle of a column attacking Pegasus Bridge during the early hours of 6th June, 1944.

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Land Mattress

While the Soviet Katyusha and German Nebelwerfer rocket launchers might be better known, during World War Two, the Western Allies also experimented with using rockets in the field. The British system, known as ‘Mattress’, was developed in 1943. The Mattress systems saw action from 1944 through to the end of the war. 

Developed by a Canadian artillery officer, Lt. Col. Eric Harris with the assistance of a British officer, Lt. Col. Micheal Wardell, the Mattress fired the 3 inch RP-3 (or Rocket Projectile 3 inch), which could through a 60lb warhead up to 7,300 metres. The Mattress was used both on land and at sea, although the Naval Mattress system was of another design. A number of Landing Craft Tank (Rocket), which could fire a salvo of up to up to 1,066 RP-3, were used in Italy and during the D-Day landings.

The Mattress was a 16 or 30 tube launching system mounted on a towed carriage. It was capable of firing four rockets per second until empty. The photograph above shows a Land Mattress being being loaded in preparation for the offensive in the Reichswald, 8th February 1945, during Operation Veritable. The Land Mattress system was used en mass during Veritable with a number of batteries engaging 33 targets with over 13,300 rockets.

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Major Peter Selerie, of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry with the British 8th Armoured Brigade, describing the impact of a 290mm demolition charge fired from a Churchill (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) at a German defensive position in a house near Gold Beach during the D Day landings. 

The 290mm Petard was a spigot mortar based weapon, of the same family as the Blacker Bombard and the PIAT, designed by Major Millis Jeffris at MD.1. It used a powerful spring to launch its mortar bombs up to 100 yards. It was intended for use against fixed positions and bunkers. 

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Call of Duty: WWII Trailer Breakdown

Call of Duty returns to its roots as Activision/Sledgehammer unveil the first trailer for the next installment of the franchise. Following the trend set by their main rival, Battlefield 1, Call of Duty are again looking to the past rather than the present and future.

From the limited information available the game seems to focus on a Texas-farm boy thrust into the Allied invasion of Europe as part of a platoon of the 1st Infantry Division. This isn’t the first time Call of Duty has focused on the 1st with 2005′s Call of Duty 2: Big Red One revolving around the unit. The trailer takes us from the D-Day landings to the fighting inshore in the dense hedgerows of the Bocage behind the beaches.

The trailer features an extended sequence showing the protagonist coming ashore on Omaha Beach. The scene is reminiscent of the opening of Saving Private Ryan, Medal of Honour European Assault and of course Call of Duty 3.

Lets breakdown the weapons that appear in the trailer. Naturally many of the US infantry weapons you would expect to see are featured. Including M1 Garands, M1911A1 pistols, M1918A2 BARs and a heavy focus on M3 submachine guns. While the M1 Carbine isn’t seen clearly in this short trailer it features in some of the publicity images released. Interestingly the Thompson submachine gun does not feature at all.

Troops armed with M1 Garands and M3 Grease guns catch a ride on a Sherman tank in what might be the Bocage area of Normandy.

A soldier with an M1 Garand helps up a BAR gunner during a street battle.

A dramatic sequence begins with a tank mounted M1919A4 opening up.

What appears to be an M2 Flamethrower in action.

A charging German infantryman is dropped by a M1911A1. 

Lets take a look at some of the German weapons featured in the trailer, there are one or two interesting choices. The first German weapon we see is a P08 Luger. 

A German soldier dismounts a burning tank, cocks and fires a P08 Luger as the voice over warns “the enemy is ruthless”. Interestingly, he appears to be wearing an infantryman’s uniform and equipment rather than typical tank crew uniform. 

A vehicle mounted MG42 opens up during what appears to be a street battle.

This is perhaps the most interesting weapon of the trailer. The screen capture shows the German infantryman who is shot and killed by an M1911A1 pistol. As he falls the profile of the rifle he has becomes visible. It appears to be a Soviet SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle.

This is an interesting rifle to include - the implications of its inclusion in a game, which the trailer appears suggest is predominantly set on the Western Front, are unknown. SVT-40 were captured from Soviet troops during Operation Barbarossa so it is conceivable this soldier managed to retain his SVT-40 when his unit was transferred west. 

The heavy emphasis on the M3 submachine gun throughout the trailer is interesting as D-Day marked its first combat use. At the time the M3 had only recently begun to be issued to units. While I’m unsure of just how many were present during Operation Overlord, some were certainly issued to the US Airborne units, they were still being refined and did not become more widely issued until later in 1944. 

Aside from small arms the new trailer also features all manner of tanks, landing craft, and aircraft including a Tiger II. The Battle of Normandy was the first time the Tiger II saw action during fighting near Caen. This might suggest the battle for Caen will feature in the game. I’m looking forward to seeing what other weapons are going to be featured in the new game - let me know your thoughts, what do you make of the trailer? Call of Duty: WWII is due for release in November. 

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Ordnance: Polsten 20mm Cannon 

Developed by Polish engineers in the late 1930s the Polsten became a cheaper and simpler alternative to the ubiquitous 20mm Oerlikon. The Poles managed to complete a prototype in 1939 just before Germany and the USSR invaded. They smuggled the prototype and designs out of occupied Poland to Britain where Polish, Czech and British engineers at the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield completed the development of the weapon. 

The Polsten was simpler and easier to manufacture with 119 parts compared to the Oerlikon’s 250. This also meant it was significantly cheaper to produce costing approximately £60 to £70 rather than the £350 it cost to manufacture an Oerlikon. Despite this huge saving the Polsten was a lighter weapon with slightly faster muzzle velocity and a higher effective ceiling with projectiles reaching up to 2,200m (7,200ft). 

The Polsten was fully automatic, firing a 20mm high explosive shell which weighed 119g. The weapon fed from either a 30-round box magazine, which had two double stacks funneling into a single feed, or 60-round drum magazines commonly used by the Oerlikon. The Polsten did not have a locked breech and used an API blowback action rather than short recoil. It could achieve rates of fire up to 450 rounds per minute. 

Britain manufactured both the Polsten and Oerlikon during the war with the John Inglis factory in Canada also producing Polstens. The guns were mounted in a variety of vehicles in a number of different mounts. A simple wheeled carriage for a single cannon was initially used which could be pulled by jeeps, trucks or horses. The Allies also developed double, triple (see image #2) and quad mounts to provide greater firepower. The British built over 100 British Centaur, AA tanks with dual cannon mounts to provide mobile anti-aircraft fire during Operation Overlord.

British and Commonwealth forces deployed the Polsten across Europe seeing action in France, Holland, Italy and Germany. During Operation Market Garden gliders ferried single cannons for use by paratroops. During the D-Day landings the Royal Armoured Corps was equipped with specially built Centaur AA tanks mounted with Polstens. Trucks with quad mounts provided Anti-Aircraft cover for troops advancing into Germany. Polstens were also mounted on board naval vessels (see image #4) and saw use in the Far East.

While excellent AA guns Polstens could also be thrust into ground roles. At Arnhem the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron had two jeep-pulled Polstens which they used against German infantry and vehicles (see image #3). The Polsten remained in British service until the late 1950s. The Centurion MkI tank had a Polsten cannon mounted in its turret. This was later replaced by a medium machine gun because the 20mm shell was thought to be unnecessarily large for use against ground troops. 

The Polsten proved to be a highly effective weapon during the war and the British were lucky its Polish designers were able to smuggle it out of occupied Poland.

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Last month I wrote two double page sections about Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings and the breakout campaign, for History of War magazine.  They put together this map graphic for one section.  More on the issue here

More of my writing on Operation Overlord here

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel writing in his diary in April 1944.  He'd been tasked with overseeing the defence of the French stretches of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.  However, depression and self-doubt consumed him as he became bogged down by a continuing feud with Field Marshal Von Rundstedt over the positioning of troops close enough to the coast to strike quickly in the event of an invasion.  

While the Rommel was one of the most enigmatic generals of the Second World War, bold, decisive and energetic his diaries and letters home show a man who was periodically racked by self-doubt and pessimism. While this is at odds with the conventional impression we have of him this was something Rommel obviously struggled with but was able to overcome. 

The Rommel Papers, E. Rommel, ed. B.H. Liddell-Hart (1953)

D-Day By The Numbers

It is almost impossible to convey the sheer gargantuan scale of the Allied Invasion of Europe.  The photographs above show some of the scope of the operation but even they are limited to showing just one snapshot of a massive operation.  The first photograph shows Omaha Beach, just one of the five beaches that were landed on.  The photograph frames a beach packed with hundreds of ships and vehicles while the sky is filled with barrage balloons.  The bottom image shows just a portion of one of the Allied invasion fleets destined for Normandy. 

Operation Overlord was the single largest combined air-sea-land amphibious invasion ever attempted in military history.  One of the best ways to demonstrate the scale of the operation is to examine the numbers. The Figures:

Casualties suffered during Operation Neptune (the landings):

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Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, allegedly when trying to persuade Hitler about the need to act decisively when the invasion came.

On the day of the invasion, Hitler was not woken immediately with the news of the landings, and as a result precious hours were lost before essential armoured and reserve units were released to counter attack. 

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The recollections of Franz Gockel, an 18 year old German soldier who was part of a German platoon manning Resistance Post 62, near Coleville-Sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach.

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Landing Craft Assault

On 6th June the majority of Allied troops initially arriving on the Normandy Beaches landed in one of two craft; the American Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or the British Landing Craft Assault (LCA).

The Landing Craft Assault, was developed by Thornycroft in answer to a call for a new landing craft for the Royal Navy.  Following trials in early 1939 the Thornycroft design was adopted into service as the Landing Craft Assault.  It saw service throughout the war, during the Dunkirk evacuations a dozen LCAs rescued some 2,000 troops from the beaches.  It was later used during early Commando raids against Nazi-Occupied Europe and later in full scale landings in Europe, the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean.  

The LCA was comparable to the LCVP in a number of aspects; capable of carrying a platoon of infantry (36 men).  It was powered by two V8 Ford engines which gave it a speed of approximately 8 knots while and displaced 9 tons, it was 42 feet long by 10 feet wide, with enough room for 3 rows of seats (giving the passengers a more stable ride than the US LCVP).

Unlike its American counterpart the LCVP the LCA was protected by armour plate, securing it against much small arms fire.  It could be armed with either Lewis Guns or Brens, it could also be fitted out with spigot mortars.  The LCA's well was divided at the bow by a bulkhead mounting 2 armour plate doors to protect passengers when the forward ramp was lowered.  While the LCA was unable to transport vehicles like its American counterpart it was able to carry supplies and other equipment.  

During D-Day over 400 LCAs went into action with some specially modified to launch grappling hooks for troops climbing the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc.  During the landings the boats were used by British, Canadian and American troops, 184 boats were lost.

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Read about the LCVP here