WW II paratrooper question

[4v50 Gary]

I need your guys' help in interpretating an 82nd trooper's misadventures in Market Garden.

"I carried a land mine in my left leg jump suit pocket and a Gammon grenaded in my left leg pocket; two fragmentation grenades in my jump jacket pockets; K rations, sniper rifle, an ammo bag with 200 plus rounds of ammo, gas mask, pack and other items.

....(T)the plane started filling with smoke. As I looked across dthe planeI noticed that Lt. Rynkiewicz had been hit in the left knee and Hatfield, the BAR man, was hit on the back of his hand. To my right, a trooper was on the floor of the plane, again, I think it was Rideout. I remember saying, 'let's get the hell out of here,' and we started standing up. The Air Force sergeant dove out thee door of the plane. Within seconds, the plane was so full of smoke you could not see anything. Some men near the cokcpit of the e plane started coughing and pushing for the door.At that time, others and I fell through the floor of the plnae. We were hooked up and when my chute opened, I could smell flesh and see the skin hanging from my face and hands. I had released my rifle when the flames burned my hand."

He couldn't have been thinking of jumping with his rifle in his hands, could he? That scope was not durable and could break or gete jarred. Additionally you need your hands on the riser and yank up right before you land to soften the landing (in college I jumped 5X). Could he have had the 03A4 in a modified Griswold bag but with burnt hands how does he release it?

 

[Tommygunn]

I suspect it was attached, but he was holding it as well.

 

[herrwalther]

Griswold bags were notorious for failing. Many of the paratroopers that jumped into Normady on D-day were separated from their weapons because the bags failed and launch their rifles away from their landing area. Veteran jumpers in the 101st and 82nd started jumping with weapons in their hand "ready to fight" as a result. Rifles were slung so the parachute could still be controlled. This is covered in the mini series Band of Brothers as well as the source novels for the series written by Ambrose, Winters, and others.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I sincerely doubt he would have been free-holding it as - regardless the low altitude - it'd queer deploying the reserve and landing (PLF) would be near impossible without dropping it to the ground first. Broken elbows, busted face and all that. There are tales of fellas free-holding (or at least having the ability to free them, mid-drop) Carbines and Thompsons but that's still a bit hinky without photos - and who would have been taking those outside of exceptionally rare instances?

Sounds sketchy but then, those were dicey times for those boys.

Todd.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I read from Walsh's Look Out Below! that as a rifle grenadier (M1903 w/grenade launcher) he would jump w/rifle vertical. If it was horizontal, he couldn't get out the jump door. Per James Gavin Onto Berlin (or something) he jumped with it vertical and then once out of the aircraft, moved it horizontal (no broken jaw that way).

The "released my rifle" leaves me baffled. The Griswold bag had to be modified by a rigger to be longer to accomodate a M9103A4. As mentioned, some of the experienced 82nd jumped into Normandy w/out the Griswold. They wanted to be fight ready when they landed. The 101 was new and didn't know better.

 

[PWC]

Your post has no evidence of the type of rifle, so could be anything from a Thompson to M1. As a USAF Combat Controller in the early 60s I worked with WWII vet paratroopers, and yes many did jump with their weapons in their arms or slung bbl down til they cleared the door, then into their arms.

T10 and T7 paras from WWII are nothing like what you made 5 jumps with. From 250 to 500 feet jump altitude, many elected not to use the reserve because of the lo altitude. (A T7 reserve actually took 250' to deploy and slow the descent to safe speed). I have taken off in a plane 372 time more than I have landed in one.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Uh, the trooper's statement was "sniper rifle." The only sniper rifle the Army had was the M1903A4 (until 1945) and there's plenty of photographic evidence and statements that prove that both the 82nd and 101 had M1903A4s. Do your own research.

 

[CapnMac]

Recollection can be a fickle thing, too.
And, having been inside an aircraft that disintegrated from enemy fires and suffering significant injury in the process will further complicate memory.

As I recall (and my memory might be faulty) Army doctrine was to separate the scope at all times except for when in direct use. So the scope would have been in a case or pack. Also, it could have been a "plain" 1903 meant to be used as a grenade launcher, as the vet might have been the rifle grenade "sniper." The grenade spigot would have been dismounted as well, so the regular bag might have worked.

What's probably more telling about this account is that a huge number of fragments of FLAK shell, a/c and the like were flying about. People in every direct were being injured. So the rifle bag strap might have been cut by all that shrapnel, which was not noticed until the belly of the a/c was ripped open (really remarkable is that the a/c held together long enough to not break the static line rod.

 

[PWC]

4v50 gary- yup, I missed the "sniper rifle" part.

 

[4v50 Gary]

As I recall (and my memory might be faulty) Army doctrine was to separate the scope at all times except for when in direct use. So the scope would have been in a case or pack. Also, it could have been a "plain" 1903 meant to be used as a grenade launcher, as the vet might have been the rifle grenade "sniper." The grenade spigot would have been dismounted as well, so the regular bag might have worked.

Interesting. I know there was a case for the M73 scope, but those Redfield Jr. mounts are notorious for the windagee scews moving. They don't necessarily return to zero.

I've never read an account where a grenadier was mistaken for a sniper. I have heard of enemy soldiers whether they're blind or not, armed with a scoped rifle, MG ro SMG being called by Allied soldiers as snipers.

 

[FL-NC]

I didn't first launch myself from a plane until '87, so I can't personally vouch for the SOP on how things were rigged, but I understand that a lot of the air items designed at the time weren't working correctly, so jumpers were doing what they felt they needed to do. Since they were "figuring it out as they went", I'm sure JM inspections (if they even did them) weren't as rigid as they are nowadays. Also, where I worked in the military, it was standard practice to jump the M16/M4 "exposed" on the parachute harness. This includes the various modern attachments like optics. Wadding and tape are used to protect the weapon and the jumper. Weapons like machine guns and sniper systems were rigged in the M1950 weapons case, and lowered with the ruck (mostly to protect the jumper). All of this of course is how it is done in SOF units in the modern era on static line jumps. For freefall jumps, all weapons are exposed and heavily padded, and we didn't lower them. So you better know how to use the brakes at the right time on a square chute or its going to hurt bad. A big M1950 case isn't something I would want attached to me during a free-fall. Not very aerodynamic at all.

 

[CapnMac]

I've never read an account where a grenadier was mistaken for a sniper.

I know of a couple "been there" folks who "remembered with advantage" their exploits on St Crispin's. Where the ordinary folk don't know the difference between a tank and a TD, or what a "grenadier" is. Told enough times, "like a [blank]" just becomes "[blank]" in the telling.

In the story of the burnt paratrooper, he is the source of the label of "sniper."

And, we have to account for the difference in what a "sniper" was then, versus now.

 

[bdickens]

I imagine at that particular moment this gentleman didn't really give a tinker's damn about his scope.

 

[4v50 Gary]

No argument from me Byron. Burnt hands/face? I'd want a hospital burn ward.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Just learned the paratrooper involved survived captivity, recovered and retired from the Army as a sergeant major. He passed away in 2014.