Corporal John Raines, as written on the back of the photograph, “...posing with Tommy gun and one of the big boys.” Raines looks to be wearing the herringbone twill one-piece work suit which was commonly issued to both mechanics as well as tank crews. This uniform item would later become popular and would see wide-spread usage outside of the motor pool and armored vehicle troops. He is also wearing heavy leather gloves. On his head is what appears to be the M1938 combat helmet as evidenced by what looks like one of the ventilation holes on the helmet just below the goggles. The helmet wasn't designed to protect the wearer from bullets like the M1 steel helmet. Instead, the helmet was to protect crewman from sharp edges and protrusions within the confines of a tank or tank destroyer. For equipment, Raines only appears to be wearing the carrier for the M3 lightweight gas mask.
In Raines' hands is the Thompson M1928 submachine gun firing the .45 ACP cartridge. That it is the M1928 model can be told by the Cutts compensator on the end of the barrel. Later Thompson M1 and M1A1 models did away with this compensator and also, as a further identifier of the first model is that the M1 series could not fit the 50-round drum magazine (seen here) or the larger, 100-round drum. Nicknamed the “Tommy Gun”, the weapon saw widespread use by Allied forces throughout World War Two and some of the 1.75 million weapons built continue to see combat even today.
The “big boy” is a M3 light tank, known to the British as the “Stuart” or less commonly, the “Honey”. This is likely the initial production M3 judging by the positioning and style of the small pistol port flap on the side of the turret. The M3 was crewed by four men and first entered production in March 1941. The M3 served as a light reconnaissance tank and despite being declared obsolete in July 1943, the M3 continued to see combat until the end of World War Two. The M3 was armed with the M5 37mm gun which could successfully engage other light tanks, armored cars, and even some early war medium tanks but as the war continued in the European Theater, the M3's gun was woefully inadequate. However, in the Pacific Theater, the M3 was able to successfully combat Japanese tanks which typically were not thickly armored. Besides the British, the other large scale user of the M3 was the Soviet Union via Lend-Lease. In addition to the M5 gun, the M3 was equipped with five Browning M1919 .30 caliber machine-guns. One was mounted on a pintle mount fixed to the turret side, one was fitted co-axially with the gun, one was fitted in the front of the hull (which we can see behind Raines), and one was fitted into a sponson on either side of the hull, firing forward. The later M3A1 model did away with the sponson mounted weapons. The hatches for the driver and the co-driver are open and laying in the hatch of the driver is a Springfield M1903 bolt-action rifle judging by the butt plate which is about all that is visible of it.
Unfortunately, there is no visible unit patch on his uniform nor markings on the M3 tank to identify what unit Raines was part of. On the back of the photograph is the location of where the photograph was taken, that being Washington D.C. If this is the case, it could be that he was part of the 428th. Reserve Infantry Regiment which was based in Washington D.C. It should be noted that some infantry divisions had a reconnaissance company that, in some cases, were equipped with M3 tanks instead of the more common armored cars such as the M8 Greyhound. As to exactly where such a field photograph could be taken, the only real possibility was Fort Humphreys which was located at Greenleaf Point, a peninsula at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. The post, renamed to Fort Lesley J. McNair after World War Two, is the third oldest post in the United States, having been founded as Washington Arsenal in 1791. It is the home of the Inter-American Defense College and National Defense University but at the time of World War Two, the post was also used for basic training and thus a reasonable possibility for Corporal Raines' location. However, again, with no real specific identifiers in the photograph, an accurate unit and location isn't possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment