Fun Discussion: Outfit the Continental Army

[230therapy]

George Washington has assembled the Continental Army and is getting ready to go to war with the British. You have 15 days to outfit and train them.

You have a time portal that you can drive trucks through. The portal will last for the duration of the war.

Due to a weird quirk of the interaction of "The Butterfly Effect", Mysterious Cosmic Rays, Alien Intelligence, and The Hand of God, you can only outfit the soldiers. No support weapons, cannon, modern vehicles, etc.

Assumptions:

1) Adequate support gear will be provided: parts, clothing, MRE's, gear, boots, ammunition, magazines, etc.

2) The portal moves as needed and is secure at all times. Supplies may be delivered as required.

3) Your budget is sufficient to handle any weapons for all Americans and their allies in the war.

4) The trucks cannot stay. They are only for deliveries. No vehicles will stay behind once the portal closes (it vacuums them up somehow).

5) Anything anyone can think of as an exception is taken care of and you don't have to worry about it. This is The Hand of God intervening on your behalf.

The Questions:

1) What rifle and handgun would you choose?

2) If you could choose three people, what special guns would you give them? Who would you give them to?

 

[Rail Driver]

I'd outfit the troops with select fire m-16/AR-15s in 5.56 and a few FALs for each unit.

Sidearm would be (surprise, surprise!) a 1911

I'd also supply 2 Barret M82A1's and an M249 SAW. I don't have the first clue who would get the special weapons.

Hand grenades and extra ammo to each soldier as well.

 

[Patriotme]

AK47 - The army lives in the field. There really is no clean rear area as we are used to today. Probably the best that can be hoped for is what we would consider a camping trip. The rifle would need to be run with minimal cleaning. Some of the army would also be illiterate and this is a good weapon for a less technological society. Then there is the dumbass factor. I recently read David McCollough's "1776." It's a great book and worth a read. In one chapter he mentioned that in the early days of the war some soldiers literally had their clothing rotting off of their backs because they were used to having their women do laundry and felt it was beneath them to wash their own clothing. Discipline improved in the following months but I'm not sure I would trust idiots like this with a weapon that needed a fair amount of maintenance.
I would choose a 10mm Glock for the handgun. This would only be a backup weapon for the infantry, officers and NCO's but it would probably be a primary weapon for the Calvary. It would be a large enough caliber to bring down a man and an enemy's horse if needed. It's easier to hit an enemy's horse than it is to hit him.
I would pick some form of sniper rifle for the other 3 people. I'm undecided on what kind. It would probably be something in .338 Lapua Magnum just to cover all bases. Snipers could change the entire battlefield when an army is tightly controlled by officers and NCO's. People are not generally stupid. Sooner or later the enemy would have to learn to take cover and send pickets far enough out to thwart (don't get to use that word much) snipers. A .338 would let the sniper put down fire from waayyyy out there. The sniper may need to be out of the range of cannon as well when putting down fire.
Since half of the losses came from disease it might just be better to take modern antibiotics through and institute modern hygeine standards. Half of the troops fell out from marches so decent shoes and rations would help there.

 

[230therapy]

Rifle: AR-15 in 6.5 Grendel with Trijicon ACOG 4x32 (with appropriate reticle, backup red dot and BUIS). This would give every man 800 yard capability with a 25ish round magazine. Everyone would have cleaning gear and the trucks will always deliver on time.

One could argue that simple bolt actions with 10 round magazines, chambered in 308 Winchester, with ACOGs, would be enough to completely nuke the British.

Given the capabilities of the semi-automatic rifle and the Brown Bess musket, I'm not sure that a machine gun would even be necessary.

Handgun: My handgun choice would be based upon the preferences of the 18th century American handgun shooter. Did they prefer large caliber handguns? Or was a mid-sized caliber more popular? If the shooting enthusiasts preferred a large caliber gun, then I'd chamber it in 45 ACP. 9x19mm would be fine if smaller was preferred.

45 ACP: Give them the benefit of technology. I'd go with the S&W M&P 45 Full size with adjustable grip. HK, FN, 1911...all good too.

9x19mm: Glock 19, Browning Hi-Power...too many to list. I would probably go with the Glock 19.

Either way, the ammunition would be high quality JHPs.


Gifts:

Fully engraved custom 1911. This would be the top line gun made by the best pistolsmiths in the US.

I would give one to George Washington.

Every man who signed the Declaration of Independence would get one too.

 

[Cosmoline]

Actually equipping them with modern AK's or even Garands would have too many negative political ramifications. That war, probably more than most others, was a political struggle where the US needed to prove itself as a nation. The interdiction of a clearly alien technology would likely brand the nascent Republic as the WORK OF SATAN (which many already suspected it was) and give rise to a general opposition to it by all European nations.

So I would take a more subtle approach. Introduce the Civil War era caplock rifle musket and claim it as a new American invention. The technology is similar to then-existing weapons, but considerably more accurate. A soldier who knows how to load a musket can load a rifle-musket. The only additional training would be on how to actually aim using the rear sights.

 

[Mags]

Remmy 700s in 30/06. Our boys were sharpshooters then wait till they had a nice bolt action rifle it would still be faster to load than the Brit's muskets. A nice DA revolver would be my choice of sidearm.

Not eeven close to what I would choose nowadays, I don't even own a revolver.

 

[Blackhawk30]

Since more soldiers died of disease than combat.I would teach basic sanitation and give them a full set of vaccinations.As far as guns go an AK and a Glock 21 should suffice.

 

[Mike OTDP]

Cosmoline brings up an interesting point. You've got an army accustomed to muzzle-loading weapons. Hand them an AK, and you'll need a couple of month to retrain them. Better to hand them a rifle-musket.

But I might take a very small cadre and train them on the use of semi-auto weapons like an AR. (my preference would be for a couple of M249 crews, but that's too much for the parameters)

 

[Balrog]

We won the Revolution using inferior weapons compared to the British, so I don't really see the point. But for fun, I agree with Cosmoline, or maybe even just equip them with the British service weapon of the time for logistical purposes.

 

[killchain]

I'd love to say "Give them all SAWs" but the ramifications on everything, as a previous poster said, wouldn't be good.

I'd give George Washington a trusty lever 30-30 (and of course tell him that I was from the future and not to tell because America is awesome), and make sure all of our boys had enough rations to eat and shoes to wear.

Oh, and remind the writers of the Constitution to make sure the Second Amendment was ratified. Haha.

 

[230therapy]

The magic wand was waved and the political ramifications of "alien" tech go away.

 

[Hatterasguy]

Mosin Nagent. Can't kill them, their natural habitat is mud, and they are plenty of rifle. Put some pig grease on the action once in awhile and call it good.

 

[fireside44]

Actually equipping them with modern AK's or even Garands would have too many negative political ramifications.

Yeah, the brits would've gotten more screwed than they did...lol

and give rise to a general opposition to it by all European nations.

So in other words two hundred years of history would've passed in a much shorter period of time and all of it could have been resolved by 1800.

1) What rifle and handgun would you choose?

Well, in that case, Thompsons with drum mags and Glocks with 33 round mags

 

[MistWolf]

Simply giving them Minnie Ball technology would give the Americans a significant edge over the British in long range accuracy and killing power without needing much retraining. For pistols, I'd equip them with the 36 caliber Colt Navy or the 44 caliber Colt Army. If I wanted even better technology, I'd go with Sharps carbines & rifles of the breech loading variety or maybe even as 45-70 cartridge.

However, it was the life or death struggle our country fought that forged us into a great nation

 

[Gouranga]

However, it was the life or death struggle our country fought that forged us into a great nation

Ditto. I would bring a lawn chair, a case of beer (to be replenished as needed), and a good digital camcorder and watch history unfold.

One additional thing though, I WOULD absolutely locate every man who put pen to paper around the bill or rights and videotape an interview on their thoughts around 2A.

 

[Rail Driver]

I can see it now... Soldier fires AR-15, gets out his cleaning rod and starts trying to ram a round in the muzzle and shoots himself...

Can't forget the training manuals!

 

[Guncollector1982]

Just a thought but if victory would of been so easy had we superior weapons and equipment even for that time let alone advanced would anyone appreciate the reward later had victory been so easy?? I think the blood and battles that formed our independence freedom and history are part of what gave the nation strength and a reminder of the cost of freedom. But in the name of fun id take a M1 garand and Wheel gun of somekind for reliabilty and speed of loading

 

[yeti]

Hire Von Stuben immediatly at double pay, have him invite a few of his favorite NCO's to come over, then go have a good dinner with General Washington and maybe take a long nap and a hot bath.

 

[opie4386]

i would give them the wonderfull power of COMMO!!!!! Washingtons reinforcments would have gotten to the battles in time to actually fight instead of weeks later lol. i dont know what weapon besides WWI rifles because everything is just too complex for that time frame

 

[2RCO]

I'm thinking keep it simple and outfit them with something like Single Action Revolvers and Mauser 98 Rifles this would be easy enough to train them on and wouldn't require large amounts of upkeep. Anything more modern would be a bit more than the average Continental soldier could grasp. The range on the rifles would be so far superior to the British equipment that the whole war would change. In close quarters the SAA's would be really handy as well.

 

[alohachris]

Any modern weapon and some antibiotic would win the day. I would get Washinton, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin together and tell them to make the 2nd Amendmet language more explicit and warn them of gun grabbing politicians of the future.

 

[2RCO]

Alohachris--I wouldn't tell them too much about how it all turns out though... They might decide they were fighting a useless battle when they find out the situations that their descendants will have to deal with. I still love this country but I'm thinking if the founders were around to watch the goings on in DC that they'd be a little miffed.

 

[UKShooter]

As a Brit, I'm not convinced about this

 

[bannockburn]

I think Cosmoline has the right idea; improve upon existing weaponry, but have it pretty much the same technology of the period. This would be keeping in mind the overall mentality of the soldiers we're dealing with in 1776, and how applicable the KISS principal would be here.

On the English side, there was a rather inventive and capable officer by the name of Major Duncan Ferguson. He brought over to the colonies a rifle that easily could have changed the outcome of the war, if it were issued in large enough quantities to the British Army. It was a breech loading rifle that was quick and easy to reload, and was as accurate as our own Kentucky long rifles. Training for our troops with this new weapon could easily be accomplished in 15 days. And with enough powder and shot, the increased firepower, along with a variation in period tactics, should be enough for our army to prevail.

As for special weapons; I would equip some of our rifles with scopes, though nothing too radical or exotic for the time period. Certainly enough to give our snipers an effective edge. Also I would have breech loading artillery brought in; again to give us the added advantage of firepower on the battlefield.

 

[CajunBass]

Unless you're British, why would you want to change anything? They seemed to do ok with what they had.

Ok, maybe some food, clothing and shoes. That's about it.