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Lewis Guns Used in Guadalcanal


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I am currently rereading the book "MARINE" by Burke Davis.

Its about the life of Lewis "Chesty" Puller.

On page 140 its written that one of Pullers captains, Regan Fuller, used 6 Lewis Guns to fight the Jap Bonsai attacks.

Unfortunately its written that "most of which jammed."

But at least is showed that the old gun was still used by the infantry in 1942.

My guess would be that the pans were dented from rough handling.

Jim C

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there is a lot of video taken at the time showing the Lewis in use - particularly on the navy landing boats ( Higgins boats) . Very possible that the Marines would have commandeered any auto weapons they could get. I have seen some of the video clips in History channel showing these in the initial landings....

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  • 2 weeks later...

In the highly corrosive atmosphere of a Pacific island (humidity and salt plus corrosive ammo), I would also think that rust in the gas tube may have been a problem. That and dented pans would be the two most likely culprits in my experience. My Lewis prefers to run pretty well lubed, and that is also not a recipe for success in a sandy environment!

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