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Thompsons In Pig Boats


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history channel has a bunch of ww2 in living color(or whatever it's called) on all afternoon.

they just had a story, with color film, on about an action the USS Trigger was in.

they torpedoed a jap transport full of jap soldiers. then surfaced to machine gun survivors.

and what do you know out came a thompson, complete with a C drum, blasting away. red splatter and all.

 

followed by some rather clear footage of an I type jap sub getting COMPLETELY pounded by a torp, it was blown completely in half.

 

 

*edit*

the program is called

" the color of war"

Edited by brian
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http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/sad.gif I didn't know it was an acceptable policy, to machine gun the survivors

of ships we torpedoed in the Pacific?...What an eye opener?..I hope not...jw

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It was more common than you think to kill Japs in the water. Especially

when shooting up barges carrying troops up and down the Solomans.

 

Our subs did alot of that, according to what I have seen. They would

surface and use the conning tower mounted MGs and the small arms on board.

Considering the vicousness which the Japanese prosecuted the war, it

was not surprising. The Japanese were also not know for their willingness

to surrender.

 

Prehaps even more disturbing, is that our Army also commited

attrocities in Europe in the final days of the war there. Charles MacDonald

in his classic book "Company Commander" details one such event. When

asked where the Germans were that one of his platoons was walking up

the hill with, he was told they made a break for it. He stated in the book,

"Today Company G commited a war crime. It will probably not matter since

we will win the war." Guess he was right.

 

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There were also two well known massacres in Sicily that were presumably inspired by Patton's fiery speeches. In the first Captain John T Compton who commanded Company C of the 180th ordered a firing squad of about two dozen men to shoot forty or so German snipers. In the second, Sgt. Horace T. West of Company A killed thirty six prisoners, thirty four Italians and 2 Germans with a Thompson submachine gun. Both were tried by military courts. Using Patton's statements as his defense, Compton was acquitted. West however was found guilty and sentencd to life in prison. That November Compton "going forward alone to investigate a white flag raised by the Germans" was shot and killed in Italy. The following November West was freed and returned to duty as a private.

From "Patton: A soldier's Life" by Stanley Hirshson

 

I can imagine that it wasnt too hard for Compton to get volunteers for his firiing squad knowing how much snipers were hated. But West would have had to change mags to mow down his victims and that would be cold.

 

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In Roscoe Blunt's accounts of his WW2 infantry days, in 'Foot Soldier', he tells about an incident involving a captured SS soldier in the Battle of the Bulge. It starts out when Roscoe is called to interogate/interpret this said SS soldier. The SS soldier tells, smugly, about five or six of his compatriots out in the woods who are hungry and want to surrender. Roscoe leave and goes back to his foxhole. A while later a Sergeant from another platoon comes and gets him, and he is MAD. The Sergeant tells Roscoe the SS scum's story was a lie, and they were led into an ambush with the loss of several Americans. They procede to the POW stockade where Roscoe points out the SS person (I cannot in good concience call him man). The Sergeant proceeds to beat the SS with his Thompson and then drags him out of the enclosure and empties TWO magazines into him. Roscoe states that he had not seen a person that mad. He said he helped in the beating because of the lies that caused his fellow soldiers deaths. I tell you, I could not call that an attrocity, but an act of retribution.

 

In Donald Burgett's Last book he tells of an incident right after the Germans surrender. While he and some buddies were crossing a foot bridge a SS officer was coming the opposite direction. The officer was in full SS uniform and stops to talk to them. This said officer proceeds to arrogantly tell how great the Germans were, bash the Jews, etc., etc. While he is spouting off all this filth, Burgett and his paratrooper buddies are becoming furious. One of them steps foreward to confront this vile person, who shrinks away like the coward that he was. This trooper proceeds to beat the SS officer unconcious, takes his SS ring and dumps him over the bridge into the swolen, swift moving current. After what they saw in the camps they liberated, and the trash that kraut was talking, I could see myself doing the same thing.

 

Scott

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