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Carbines Issued to Cannon Company

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    Posted: Sep 18 2016 at 12:11am
September 2016-E

CARBINES ISSUED TO CANNON COMPANY, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT,

30TH INFANTRY DIVISION

 

Our thanks to Thomas Ramsey for contributing, via researcher Don Hillhouse, three pages of documents that his father brought home from WWII. The elder Ramsey served as a Supply Clerk in Cannon Company (105mm Howitzers), 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division. He annotated the serial numbers of 41 Garands and 76 Carbines that were issued to members of Cannon Company at some time before the 30th ID landed in Normandy on 10 June 1944.

 

Although it is impossible to draw any definitive conclusions from this list, it is published here to elicit discussions among Forum members. This is the first "issue list" of Carbines that the staff of the former Carbine Club has ever seen. J.B. Powers has put the serial numbers in numerical order by manufacturer. Note that only three of the ten carbine manufacturers are represented here: Inland, Winchester, and the Saginaw plant.

 

The Inland carbines listed are 1942 serial numbers, probably all delivered to the government by the end of 1942. We know that the Ordnance Department issued small numbers of carbines to all branches of the Armed Forces as soon as they became available, for familiarization training. These Inland carbines are likely from among those in the initial issue.

 

The Winchester numbers listed were probably delivered to the government by September 1943. However, the WRA number 1261809, if it is correct, was stamped on the receiver on October 14, 1943. This may be another example of WRA's random usage of numbered receivers. The Saginaw numbers listed appear to represent a period of several months. The highest SG numbers were probably delivered to the government no earlier than December 1943. The single Standard Products number, 2307880, is about 70,000 higher than any known S-P serial number. Moreover, that same serial number was issued as a Garand on the first page of the document (not shown here). This could be a coincidence, but it is more likely an error in record-keeping.

 

The Garand Collectors Association will publish an article on the M1 rifles issued, in an upcoming GCA Journal. Dave McClain has reported that the Garand serial numbers all date to 1943, with the "Standard Products" number 2307880 being among 5 Winchester M1s with closely spaced serial numbers dating from August 1943. Hence, it seems likely that all these rifles (Garands and Carbines) were issued to the 117th’s Cannon Company at the same time, stateside in the fall/winter of 1943 before the 30th Infantry Division shipped out in February 1944.

Don Hillhouse, J.B. Powers, Marty Black

 
 
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