us marine squads query

Started by petercooman, 18 May 2017, 12:19:50 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

petercooman

Right chaps, little question.

I have 2 sprues of warlord games' marines, and want to make a force for flying lead.

Now i have read that the standard squad in 44 had:

1 leader with carabine
3 fire teams consisting of: BAR gunner, assistant with M1, Leader with M1, soldier with M1.

Now looking at the sprues i have:

6 x M1 garand
2 x BAR
3 x M1A1 thompson
2 x shotgun
6 x carabine

Thinking about making two of the 3 fireteams , wich will use up all my M1 rifles and BAR's, And leave me with 4 men to do with what i want.

One will be the leader, but can't decide what to do with the other 3. Anybody got any info on the use of shotguns and the ratio of Thompsons in the marines late war? Can't find a lot of info about the subject. Also did the numbers of carabines in a squad differ sometimes? Because i have way too many of those on the sprues, made me wonder why?

SV52

Have a look at this, even illustrates every individual soldier and weapon:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/OOB/Regt-TOE-F/
"The time has come, the walrus said..."

2017 Paint-Off - Winner!

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

They would be mixed in with the fire teams. A platoon would often have two rifle squads and an assault squad with a bazooka (may be two) and a Flamethrower (or 2).
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

Duke Speedy of Leighton

That's one hell of a document. Great find!  8)  =D> :-bd m/
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

petercooman

Quote from: SV52 on 18 May 2017, 12:56:17 PM
Have a look at this, even illustrates every individual soldier and weapon:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/OOB/Regt-TOE-F/

Yes, that's where I got the 'layout' I described in my post. Can't find anything about the Thompson in there.

Quote from: ianrs54 on 18 May 2017, 01:12:54 PM
They would be mixed in with the fire teams. A platoon would often have two rifle squads and an assault squad with a bazooka (may be two) and a Flamethrower (or 2).

I thought I had read that somewhere, but couldn't find it anymore. Any idea if the assault squads had men armed with shotguns? And if so, did they just carry the shotgun or did they carry them togheter with another weapon?

SV52

The Thompson was supposed to be replaced by the M3 'Grease gun' but didn't happen due to production problems with it, but both were in use after '43; so either. It's the old thing about 'should have had' versus 'did have'. As the Marines always seemed to be at the back of the queue for everything, likely they got fewer M3s than the Army. Only my humble opinion of course.
"The time has come, the walrus said..."

2017 Paint-Off - Winner!

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

The shot gun would replace a rifle or SMG, for use as the primary personal weapon. It weighs about the same, as does the ammunition.

IanS
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

petercooman

All right, will definitely swap out a rifle for a shotgun then. Different weapons bring a bit more flavour to skirmish games. So far I have built a fire team with two m1's, BAR and smg. And am thinking about BAR,2 m1's and a carabine for the next one. Third one will be an smg, m1 and the shotgun. Leader will have a carabine and be sporting binoculars.

This gives me a 12 man team instead of 13, but with the casualty rate in the pacific, I doubt many squads remained at full strength so that's acceptable.

Only thing I am not sure of I the carabine in the second fire team. But I think I'll just go for it.

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

13th man is squad sgt, not in a fire team.
FOG IN CHANNEL - EUROPE CUT OFF
Lord Kermit of Birkenhead
Muppet of the year 2019, 2020 and 2021

petercooman

Yes I know, that's what I meant with 'leader'

I only have enough components for 12 men so have to have 1 understrenght fire team