Ohio Firearms

Some fresh rattle can for the High Power guns

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Rock Island Arsenal M1903 #247786

This early M1903 is possibly documented to the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Machine Gun Squadron in 1923. An M1903 with this serial number is included in an Eighth Corps document stating it had a bad bore and ordering the rifle turned in to ordnance for a barrel replacement.

This rifle has a 1917 Rock Island Arsenal production receiver that has had its barrel replaced with an "A" stamped Springfield Armory 4-18 dated one - which fits the documentation and increases the odds that it is indeed the rifle mentioned. However, as with all M1903s in the duplicate serial number range, there is no way to be 100% certain outside documentation explicitly saying so.

As it stands, this is a very nice WWI-era M1903 that may have a past with the famed 1st Cavalry Division.

Saginaw M1 Carbine #3330711

This remarkable M1 Carbine is documented as a combat loss to "Gunfire Support Craft - U.S. Naval Forces in Europe."

Gunfire Support Craft (GSC) were primarily built on "reverse Lend-Lease" landing craft from the British. Up-armored and loaded with guns and rockets, GSC were to proceed seaborne infantry and bombard coastal defenses from close range. Through coordination with their Shore Parties, GSC would knock out machine gun nests, strong points and targets of opportunity to help create avenues off the beach. Some GSC craft, like the LCT(HE) would intentionally beach themselves to provide Shore Party and Beach Battalion directed howitzer fire, while LCG(L) gunboats a few hundred yards offshore would engage targets with 4.7 inch guns.

Prior to Operation Neptune, the D-Day landings in Normandy, the sailors assigned to the GSC element were given special training in small arms. GSC sailors were assigned M1 Carbines, Thompsons, 1903A3s and 1911s primarily for defensive purposes. The combat they would face would be intense. Some craft would be sunk just off the shore, others destroyed on the beach. One craft, LC(F)-31, struck 800 yards off Utah would lose 54 of 72 sailors aboard. The dead would wash ashore for days. The considerable losses would not interfere with the mission, and the GSC crewmen would continue effectively engaging German positions until D+1.

Following D-Day, GSC would take part in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France on August 15th, 1944. This landing would be largely unopposed, and only one GSC sailor would be wounded in action with no ships lost. The command would be disbanded two weeks later as the need for amphibious operations in Europe had come and gone. It was at this time that a thorough survey of equipment would take place, as most GSC craft would be ordered stateside or sent to commands in the Pacific.

This M1 Carbine is one of several hundred weapons documented by GSC staff officers as having been lost to enemy action. The fact that the unit's only combat losses came on D-Day ties this incredible weapon to combat at Omaha or Utah Beach. It survives today, intact in its original condition, suggesting it was brought home after the war. A timepiece to a battle known as the Day of Days.