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28 Usage In Ww2


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Thompson was meant to be replaced by the sten, and round '43 this started, but remember they bought a boatload of 28s early in the war.

 

My observations:

 

Commando units that retained 28s kept them until the bitter end.

 

NZ Units in Italy used the M1.

 

Eighth Army in Italy appear to have kept using the 28s they got in the early years, rather than switch to the sten.

 

NW Europe the sten pretty much replaced the Thompson, but for some of the commando units.

 

SE Asia, seems the 28s were in use up until the end. Gurkha, Indian troops and others. GM Fraser threw his in a river ('45) and picked up an Enfield. Sometimes I've wanted to do the same with my Kahr.

 

 

 

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If you have or can borrow the deluxe version of "Saving Private Ryan" there is extra footage that covers Steven Spielberg's younger years, including bits on making his first "home movies" under the direction of his father. He talks about the Thompson that Tom Hanks used in the movie and also shows some 8mm movies taken of his Father in the Phillippines. His dad is sitting on the steps of a building cleaning a '28! Not only that, you can see the Lyman sight and can't help but to notice that the bolt is Nickle plated.

You can't tell for sure if it is an overstamp, Savage or an Auto-Ordnance made gun, but it's still cool to know that an anti like Spielberg still has a soft spot in his heart for the Tommygun!

 

 

john

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I have recently found a photo in my father's photo album of him in the pacific

where they guys are training with 1928A1's (He was in the Royal New Zealand Air Force,) these photos are taken around 1943. There are other photos I have seen of NZ Army guys in the Egypt campain with 1928A1's

I used to own a NZ Army marked 1928A1 (Like an idiot I sold it in a moment of stupidity) I have not seen many photos of NZ troups with M1's. I think they mainly had 1928A1's.

My two pennys worth. http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

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Thanks Murray- I was going off photographs of the action at Cassino, in which your countrymen were heavily invested. There's several photographs of NZ troops with M1 Thompsons guarding German prisoners or fighting in the rubble, about the only photographic records myself and others found of M1 use by commonwealth troops. However sifting through old photograph's without benefit of other documentation is hardly professional research. I should have made that more clear, I didn't wish to sound like I was presenting an expert opinion, I'm just a muppet.

 

As far as written accounts, remember too 'tommy gun' was also a slang term for any smg.

 

Todd

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TAB wrote "As far as written accounts, remember too 'tommy gun' was also a slang term for any smg." Yes, and also remember, the only submachinegun was also a Thompson since Gen. Thompson coined the term to describe his weapon. I have never seen any indication that AutoOrd ever tried to obtain a trademark on the term "submachinegun" or tried to protect the term as a trade name and prevent it from becoming generic. They did specially mark a number of the Mod 28's with the "Tommy Gun" term to ensure the term was used in commerce.

 

 

 

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Second,

Again, it's true that John T. coined the term, but that does not mean that something did not exist until someone came up with a name for it. The Jeep existed before it was known as a "Jeep", the American foot soldier existed before they were monikered "Doughboy", or"G.I." etc. The 1915 Revelli was the first SMG, whether there was a word for it or not.

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Anybody recoginze that round front sight on the 28 in Guadalcanal Diary?

 

And was ther a compensator without the ribs as seen in the same flick or was that added for the blank firing?

 

See the pics in the post on Thompson movies.

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