We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:04:25 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 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,... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html Tue, 30 Jan 2007 06:52:32 -0600 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. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55993 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55993 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:17:31 -0600 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... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55992 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55992 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:59:08 -0600 yeah, maybe... just a little... nope. well maybe... Nah! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55990 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55990 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:35:45 -0600 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... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55986 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55986 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:29:55 -0600 MacNamara's Hundred Thousand. He was a fine man, but his troops ran rings around him, limiting his effectiveness as an NCO.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55980 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55980 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:14:44 -0600 > 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. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55978 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55978 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:59:39 -0600 I've heard that when under duress people have been known to shake the M3 in an attempt to get it to fire faster.... :-) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55976 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55976 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:05:12 -0600 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. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55973 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55973 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:00:19 -0600 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... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55972 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55972 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:40:35 -0600 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." http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55971 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55971 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:25:54 -0600 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. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55970 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55970 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:59:08 -0600 I should note, too - the Pedersen device is *not* mine, it belongs to Beau. I *am* trying to get him to adopt me, however. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55969 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55969 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:15:23 -0600 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. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55968 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55968 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:13:32 -0600 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? ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55966 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55966 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:42:12 -0600 My buddy Beau has had the ammo since the 60's... *hundreds* of rounds. As for pictures - I hope to go one better. Video! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55965 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55965 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:41:48 -0600 Where did you find a Pedersen device??!! Pictures, pictures!..... and, uh, where did you the find ammo? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55964 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2007/01/gun_grease_sa_m.html#comment-55964 Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:39:28 -0600