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Marine Guadalcanal


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Thanks for posting the photo!

 

Also visible in the lower left of the photo is a bandoleer of .30 five-round stripper clips. Someone there was still armed with the M1903 rifle. This dates the photo somewhat, since Guadalcanal Marines made the switch to the M1 Garand in the late fall of 1942, after the pivotal battles on and around Bloody Nose Ridge and the Henderson Field perimeter.

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couple of nice dents in that steel pot too.

Tom,

 

I believe he is wearing an early Hawley paper fiber liner. It is worn and then became warped by the suspension rivet hardware when subjected to wet and humid jungle conditions. Look at the front brim, the twill covering is worn out and the cardboard fiber is showing through.

 

The photos below show Col. Charles Hunter of Merrill's Marauders at the capture of the Myitkyina Airstrip in Northern Burma in 1944. Hunter wears a Hawley liner where you can the identations near the suspension rivets. By the way, my father Myles Schauer is pictured in the second photo, behind Stilwell.

 

Myitkyina-1.jpg Myitkyina-2.jpg

Edited by gijive
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Great pics from you gents. Always interesting.

 

Amazing likeness to your father, Chuck! Wow.

 

One of my uncles carried a Thompson on Guadalcanal and throughout the Pacific. He was a sarge. Great man, always very quiet. I still have the small Bible he carried.

 

The only "war story" he told me was about finding 2 crates of what he swore were 25-round mags for the Thompson. But he had to abandon his fact-finding before being discovered by the MPs. Our esteemed members here surmised those mags to likely be for the UD42.

 

Ron

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GI Jive: I agree with your assessment of the Hawley paper fiber lining. Sharp eye! Probably wearing it to keep the sun off his head. That may be his or the MG gunners steel helmet behind him.

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Nice photo, thanks for posting! Haven't seen it before. Definitely a Hawley liner, especially since Marines were the last ones to be upgraded (or not at all) to the high pressure micarta liners that are most common.

 

I wonder if he's got a pouch for his drum.

 

Andrew

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Lower left corner out of focus also looks like a M1905 bayonet handle.

Good job spotting the bayonet handle! I did not even notice it.

 

Speaking of blades though, is that a machete to the right of the machine gun?

 

Is the pistol grip missing from the machine gun?

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Lower left corner out of focus also looks like a M1905 bayonet handle.

Good job spotting the bayonet handle! I did not even notice it.

 

Speaking of blades though, is that a machete to the right of the machine gun?

 

Is the pistol grip missing from the machine gun?

Looks like a machete handle to me. The grip on the 30. Caliber is there.

 

Marine-1.jpg

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I agree. He has the Hawley Liner on. I have a mint original Hawley liner for comparison here. No dent, cracks or flaws. Hard to find in this condition.

Eric.

Awesome, you don't find much in that condition! I've looked at a few over the years, ones like that though go for good $$$.

 

Andrew

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I think i see a snipers turd over on the left to the right and off center from the middle near the next rock by the left circle around the 30 cal. between the 45 auto and ammo crate and German stahelm. Might have been dropped off after a shoot and scoot.

 

Or maybe its a long branch to the right axis near the middle of the screen near the bottom.hard to tell in all this confusion and reporting. incoming now gotta run.

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