Gun, Grease, SA M3A1, w/acc, 1 ea.

By The Armorer on January 30, 2007 | | Comments (16)

That is the Whatziss. Well, that's not true. The Whatziss is a *component* of this.

Now, it's not a grease gun like this.

No, not that at all. Though you can see where the GI naming inspiration came from. That, and perhaps the fact that it often was a mechanic's weapon, especially recovery vehicle crews. And tank crews. And, well, anyone who was authorized a subgun vice a rifle or carbine.

Nor is it to be confused with a sub-machinegun, .45 caliber, M3A1, either, like that one up there. Because, since the one in the Arsenal Holdings is shootable, well, that would be *BAD* if it were a Sub-machinegun, .45 caliber, M3A1, since the state of Kansas declines to allow it's citizens to own functional fully-automatic weaponry, though the state to the right (when facing north) that is about 1.5 miles away, does. What's really funny about that is that the state to the right of us is where the event occurred (the Union Station Massacre) that caused the State of Kansas to get it's panties in a twist about private ownership of fully automatic weapons... even though the people who were using the fully automatic weapons in the state to the right were criminals and not likely to give a hoot about the law that Kansas passed. But that's a post of a different color.

No, that's a Valkyrie Arms SA M3A1 (SA not for Springfield Arsenal but rather Semi-Automatic) and is officially classified as a rifle. With short (dummy) display barrel, long barrel, and fake suppressor barrel that apes the OSS Silenced Grease Gun. The fake suppressed barrel was the Whatziss. To be a rifle, it has to meet certain barrel-length requirements, hence the long barrel. To meet the requirements of the Ugly Rifles That Scare Me Assault Weapons Ban the stock also had to be fixed. Though, with the lapsing of that law, apparently I can now send the weapon back to Valkyrie and they could retro-fit a collapsible stock. At least they offer the service, and I assume they don't want to go to jail. They actually make a pistol version now, which allows the short, original barrel, and has no stock, but, frankly, especially with a full magazine, I can't imagine that wouldn't be rather awkward. I assume that the barrels for the pistol have a different threading for the barrel - or idiots out there will buy pistol barrels for their carbines and create illegal weapons.

The Armorer will not, as he does not wish to move to 1300 Metropolitan Avenue from his current address, which serves his modest needs just fine.

The original grease gun came into being because of WWII. Colonel Thompson's fine M1928 series subgun was the only weapon of it's type in mass production when the war opened, but, while a sturdy and reliable piece it was heavy, very complicated to manufacture (requiring lots of skilled machinist time perhaps better spent on other things) and, as a result, expensive. It was also machined from solid billet steel, which was, well, somewhat wasteful of a strategic material, considering how much had to be machined away. Photos of a finished receiver available here, at Philadelphia Ordnance.

In it's ultimate form, the M1A1, the Thompson was greatly simplified - but still just too dang expensive to produce in terms of cost, time, and skilled workmen. There was a war on. Something Had To Be Done.

After a brief flirtation with the Marlin-Hyde M2 sub-machine gun which took too long to produce good prototypes, along came the M3 Grease Gun. A metal tube, some stampings, some welding, and the only serious machining being the barrel and bolt. Sanger thoughtfully provide a nice picture of the M3A1 while we were discussing, among other things... the Whatziss.

Firing from an open bolt (most subguns do, so that heat won't cook-off a round in the chamber) it was cocked with a lever on the side, which, in service, tended to catch on things, bend, and otherwise annoy the user. The safety was the ejection port cover, which had a flange that projected down into a hole in the receiver. Cocked, with the port cover open, the thing was dangerous... something that probably is weighing heavily on the minds of these German POWs in Brittany.

Some product improvements were made, resulting in the M3A1. The cocking lever was dispensed with, and the user just opened the ejector port cover, and stuck his finger in a hole in the bolt and pulled it back to cock it. The stock was modified so that it could be used as a wrench for removing the barrel (required for cleaning). One end of the wire stock had a socket for a cleaning brush, the other had a slot for cleaning patches. There was a metal doohickey (official term) that served as a magazine loader. The weak point of the M3 guns were the magazines. Instead of being double-column, double-feed, they were double-column single feed - which made them a bitch to load and caused some jamming problems. The gun had an oil reservoir and oil brush in the pistol grip. All in all a handy weapon, cheap to produce, and simple to use and maintain.

And it lasted a long time - the last combat hurrah of the M3A1 was Desert Storm. The Armorer also carried one when he was a battery commander, trading his M1911A1 (a nice 1943 Remington Rand) with the VTR driver for his Guide Lamp (a division of GM that made grease guns) M3A1.

It's fun to shoot, with a slow, steady beat that will allow a good shooter to shoot single shots as needed/desired. The longer barrel makes the .45 ACP go farther a little faster, and what it hits stays... hit, and is usually distracted by same. Hence my desire to carry one while I was a Battery Commander. If I needed to defend myself, I probably had even bigger problems in the battery area and wanted a weapon that would really influence my surroundings.

The semi-auto in the Holdings of the Arsenal of Argghhh! languished in lay-away for a long time, and is as-yet unfired. But, come better weather, the M3 will make a trip to the range - along with a really rare bird a buddy of the Armorer owns - a Pedersen device. Yes, boys and girls - the Armorer is going to shoot a weapon very very very few people have shot. A semi-auto M1903 rifle...

I did find this cool video of a silenced grease gun being fired in the Phillipines, and this video of an M3A1 being fired in a range - note the use of the finger to cock and the slow rate of fire.

For you Airsoft aficionados - here's the Hudson Airsoft Grease Gun being fired with "blue gas" and with "green gas".


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16 Comments

By Pogue on January 30, 2007 8:39 AM
Where did you find a Pedersen device??!! Pictures, pictures!..... and, uh, where did you the find ammo?
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 30, 2007 8:41 AM
My buddy Beau has had the ammo since the 60's... *hundreds* of rounds. As for pictures - I hope to go one better. Video!
 
By wolfwalker on January 30, 2007 8:42 AM
Nice rundown on an especially sneaky whatziss, Armorer. Though you can see where the GI naming inspiration came from. You know, my dark nasty suspicious mind actually wonders about this every now and then. Every single book I've ever read on WW2 small arms, whether comprehensive or superficial, mentions the M3 and says specifically that it was called the Grease Gun "because of its resemblance to that mechanic's implement." The story absolutely does not change, no matter the source. It's almost word for word, every time, stilted phrasing and all, no matter who the writer is or was. I've never seen another suggested origin for the name; I've never heard another nickname for the M3. It makes me wonder where the "Origin of the Name tale" originally came from, and who originally wrote it. As for the M3 itself, I find it rather amusing that the M3 had a standard accessory kit that converted it to 9mm caliber. Do you have one of those for your imitation M3?
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 30, 2007 9:13 AM
Nope. I meant to mention that, too. The barrel, bolt, and magazine adaptor. As for grease gun as a moniker - it really resembles what most of us recognize as a caulking gun these days. That said - the name came from somewhere, and it might simply have come from the fact that it was a mechanic's weapon, and it started getting referred to as a grease gun in that way.
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 30, 2007 9:15 AM
I should note, too - the Pedersen device is *not* mine, it belongs to Beau. I *am* trying to get him to adopt me, however.
 
By JimC on January 30, 2007 9:59 AM
I just loved the grease gun. I ran a grease gun qualification range once -- what a hoot. And, there was plenty of ammo to blow off for the OIC after everyone had qualified. In those days the paperwork was onerous for the turnin of live rounds so you shot everything and turned in the brass -- a much easier process. Ahhhh the old days.
 
By 74 on January 30, 2007 10:25 AM
I had a Grease Gun for my personal weapon for some time in '68 while stationed in Saigon. I got it from a White Mouse for a certain consideration after the MPs confiscated my M1 carbine. The powers that be didn't want people in non-combat units running around town with weapons, because Saigon was officially "safe." Of course, the MPs never confiscated weapons from "ossifers."
 
By SangerM on January 30, 2007 10:40 AM
The only time I actually pointed a weapon at another person with intent to shoot was at a grease gun range. I had been waiting all day for the end of day free-for all like JimC described. I'd never fired a grease gun and was doing range duty for the company--all day. Just as I was getting ready to take mine to the line, my a$$hat platoon sergeant ordered me to go help clean up the range. He knew I'd been waiting, and had got permission, and etc. he told me I should have asked him, not the 1SG (who was actually running the range), and TS for me, ha ha. Now get to work! This was the straw that broke the back of a long suffering camel, and without a single conscious thought, I pulled my 45 from the holster, grabbed a magazine off the ammo table and slapped it into the gun, chambered a round and put it within one inch of the bridge of my PSG's nose. I calmly told him I'd had enough of him and his BS. I know I was within seconds of pulling that trigger.... Fortunately, the scout PSG walked over quickly and calmly stuck his hand up between the pistol and the guy's face and said, in a very calm voice "why don't you just give me the pistol and we'll talk about this..." I was so intent on the point of that gun that I still remember how surprised I was when the Scout guy seemingly materialized there. Interestingly, I just sort of shrugged, and handed him the pistol. I really wasn't all there to be honest... I really don't even remember much in the way of details, so maybe he didn't walk over so calmly. I dont know... Anyway, after my PSG caught his breath there was a lot of yelling, and the 1SG got involved, and so on... but apparently my suffering at the hands of that sadistic SOB hadn't gone unnoticed, so I was punished (without recourse to Art 15 or anything else), and moved out of the platoon for a while (became the NBC NCO and lots of other stuff too), till that guy found himself another place to work. I owe the scout PSG my life, really, and I had the chance to tell him that a bunch of years later when he was the 1SG of CSC 1/37 in Katterbach, which is when he asked me if I wanted to be the Scout PSG there. Best compliment ever from one of the finest NCOs I'd ever known. Unfortunately, I was a bonus recipient linguist at the time, so I couldn't do it, which really hurt. I have always thought armored scout was the best army job ever... And BTW, I have never yet fired an M3...
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 30, 2007 11:00 AM
Sanger's commenting style comes into sudden focus, eh? Well, I can't help you with an actual M3, Sanger, but if you ever find yourself up this way, we'll go out to the range and you can repeatedly pull the trigger really fast. Pretty much the same thing as shooting a real one.
 
By Pogue on January 30, 2007 1:05 PM
I've heard that when under duress people have been known to shake the M3 in an attempt to get it to fire faster.... :-)
 
By SangerM on January 30, 2007 1:59 PM
> Sanger's commenting style comes into sudden focus, eh? Oh come on... I've never actually shot anyone in anger, and anytime I hit someone I was provoked (really). But all of that was years ago anyway--last time I had hit anyone with my fist was Christmas Night 1979. Last time I was drunk. Same date. Gun incident was a year before that. And that PSG of mine: one of McNamara's 100,000, as fine a jewel of an ignorant, uneducated, lazy, sneaking southern sharecropper's son as ever found heaven in the Army. Used to black-market mass quantities of Jim Bean ('extorting' rations from some of his subordinates), always spent the cold nights in the gasthaus while we stood in snow doing radar stuff, never went to the field when we did (always had some lame reason for showing up a day or two later), was a liar of astonishing skill, and a brown-noser of the first water. He was having a fine career 'till he met my 1SG, the field commissioned in Vietnam, then rif'd E-8 who was without qualification the best NCO I ever knew, ever. Unfortunately, the guy who followed him was same stock (but worse), but I didn't have to deal with that guy. He was sent away quickly before I went back to the section to run it. I think I'm actually kind of a nice guy now. At least that's what people who know me tell me--and that I used to REALLY be hard on people. hmphf.
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 30, 2007 2:14 PM
Snerk. *That* hit home, eh? I had a gunnery sergeant who was one of MacNamara's Hundred Thousand. He was a fine man, but his troops ran rings around him, limiting his effectiveness as an NCO.
 
By BillT on January 30, 2007 6:29 PM
Baby-san had a medevac run one night (he'd already refueled and I was still in the POL point) out of Moc Hoa. Seems two Green Beanies got snockered in the Club bunker and were playing "M-3 quick draw." *Why* they were doing it with bolts cocked and mags inserted defies even my attempts at explanation. Working Moc Hoa at night was a lot of things, but it wasn't boring by a long shot...
 
By SangerM on January 30, 2007 7:35 PM
yeah, maybe... just a little... nope. well maybe... Nah!
 
By SangerM on January 30, 2007 8:59 PM
Hmmmm... That POW picture has a couple things of interest. The caption said it's from the 6th US-Panzerdivision bei Plouay, north of Lorient (in Sep '44, I think). 1) The safety is on on the grease gun, unless the port cover is missing... (the pow might not know that) 2) There's a funny looking thing on the end of the rifle barrel??? sitting stuffed behind the driver's seat... Looks almost like an old-timey blank adaptor. 3) That's an odd looking wire catcher on the front of the jeep. Homemade, it looks like a straight piece of angle iron... Bigger than the orginals. 4) I never saw a jeep with a trunk before, which doesn't mean anything, I've not seen lots of things shown this week. But that looks like a special adaptaion... Could be a medic vehicle? 5) Did Army folks wear the net helmet covers in ETO? I thought that was a Marine thing in the war, and the Army never wore those.. 6) The antenna mount looks odd, and of course it's mounted in the wrong place (they were always on the back), but that may be because of the trunk... All in all, I can't help but wonder at that... Where and who. But that's just me...
 
By John of Argghhh! on January 30, 2007 9:17 PM
Those are helmet nets, not covers (as in what the Marine in the top picture is wearing). Yes, troops in the ETO wore helmet nets. The weapon behind the seat is a carbine. That funny looking muzzle could be a rubber muzzle cover, or, possibly, the add-on muzzle break, though I personally lean toward the muzzle cover. Lots of units field-fabricated wire-cutters/guards. If it's an ambulance jeep, it's missing the stretcher clamps. It could be a wire-layer.