An Illustrated Guide To The ’03 Springfield Service Rifle
by Bruce N. Canfield
Andrew Mobray Inc.
Publishers 2004
249 pages
ISBN: 1-931464-15-4
Library of Congress
Catalog Card No: 200411992
$49.95 plus $4.50 p&h

I’ve never owned a 1903 Springfield, although I’ve come close. I own the two bolt action U.S. rifles that bracket the 1903, the Krag, and the 1917 Enfield. Reading Bruce Canfield’s book, An Illustrated Guide to the ’03 Springfield Service Rifle, made me wish, again, that I’d acquired a 1903.

In the book’s preface Canfield says, “This book is intended to be an intermediate collector’s guide for anyone interested in M1903 Springfield rifles.” He goes on to say that with books like this the author has to strike a balance between offering too little information for some people and too much for others. I think Canfield walked that tightrope very well.

The book is divided into six main sections beginning with Historical Background and Prototypes. Other sections are First World War: 1917-1918, Post-WWI, World War II, Accessories, Accouterments and Appendages and Tables. A bibliography and index follow the main sections.

In reading An Illustrated Guide to the ’03 Springfield Service Rifle, one learns quite a bit about the rare 1903 “rod bayonet.” The production of the rifle began in November 1903 at Springfield Armory. The rod bayonet was supposed to reduce weight, cut down on noise from scabbarded bayonets, and the loss of bayonets. The new bayonet wasn’t without detractors. One prominent opponent was President Theodore Roosevelt who: “…succeeded in snapping a rod bayonet in two with a single well-placed blow from a Krag rifle, with attached knife bayonet.” Roosevelt’s disdain for the rod bayonet resulted in the development of a 16-inch long knife bayonet (M1905) for the 1903.

The conversion of rod bayonet rifles to take the M1905 bayonet is covered, along with the 1903 rifles that came after it. The book includes many photos of 1903s in use in World War I and in training camps from that era.

I thought that except for the Marines in the Pacific using the ’03 for sniping, and grenade launching, the 1903 and 1903A3 were rarely used in combat in World War II. An Illustrated Guide to the ’03 Springfield Service Rifle proves I was incorrect. Photos show U.S. combat troops with a 1903A3 and a 1903A4 firing from a hill top in Burma in 1945 with a Browning 1919 firing beside them. Another photo taken in Italy in 1944 shows the ’03 in use and other photos taken even later in Europe show many soldiers armed with the 1903s. The ’03 was also often used in training in World War II.

Canfield’s book also provides information on variations and modifications on the 1903. The most common of these is the 1903A3 – reworked to make production easier and less time consuming. The changes included stamped parts and new front and rear sights. The next most common version is the 1903A4, the U.S. sniper rifle for World War II. It was also used in Korea, and to some degree in Vietnam. Less common variants include a lightened 1903 with a 25-round magazine intended for use by pilots in World War I, and a 1903 with a shortened stock and barrel sometimes called The Bushmaster Carbine. It was used by troops stationed in Panama.

In Accessories, Accouterments and Appendages, Canfield discusses slings, bayonets, scabbards, cartridge belts, rifle grenades and launchers, sights, and other accessories.

I didn’t read the tables as closely as I could have, but did see that famous shooter and gun writer Elmer Keith’s acceptance stamp from Ogden Arsenal was listed.

In the foreword, Mark A. Keefe, IV, Editor In Chief of American Rifleman wrote: “He (Canfield) does an impressive job of weaving readable narrative together with original documents and reports…” I second that.

by Lee Arten

Standard Catalog Of Military Firearms Second Edition: The Collector’s Price And Reference Guide- 1870 To The Present
By Ned Schwing
ISBN 0-87349-525-X
Krause Publications Inc
An F&W Publications Company
700 East State Street,
Iola, WI 54990-0001
715-445-2214
800-258-0929
www.krause.com
$24.99 U.S. + $4 shipping.

The Standard Catalog Of Military Firearms: Second Edition is a large-format paperback with more than 400 pages of information on military firearms. Weapons from single-shot rifles and early military revolvers to modern selective-fire rifles and belt-fed machineguns are covered. The book can be a frustrating read – there are many guns pictured I won’t be able to handle or fire. That frustration is balanced by the amount of information about military firearms contained in the book.

Photos are well composed and well lighted. Firearm markings shown are readable too. I’ve looked over many photos of men carrying and shooting military firearms, but many I hadn’t seen appear in this book.

Author Ned Schwing also wrote the Standard Catalog of Firearms. The author’s bio on the back cover of this book calls Standard Catalog of Firearms, “…the world’s most complete illustrated price guide for antique and modern firearms.” The Standard Catalog Of Military Firearms gives military firearms the same treatment. Each country, from Argentina to Yugoslavia-Serbia has its own section. They begin by listing the military conflicts of each nation from 1870 to the present. Then handguns are cataloged, followed by submachine guns, rifles, shotguns and machineguns. Firearms are listed alphabetically by manufacturer.

After reading a bit, I looked up the Madsen M50 and the UD M42. The note on the Madsen submachine gun was short but contained the basic information on the gun. The listed price for transferable Madsens was higher than I expected, but those for Pre-1986 and dealer sample M50s seemed to be in the current range. (The author states that the prices in the book are intended only as a guide, and that the Class III market is volatile.)

The note on the UD M42, a scarce US submachine gun, was longer and included the name of the gun’s designer, Carl Swebilius. Information on who used the guns in World War II was also included. The line, “These guns saw a lot of action during the war” drew my eye. I’d like to see the UD M42’s record documented in a book or a series of articles.

The quoted prices for transferable UD M42s were almost identical to asking prices I’ve seen in print ads or on gun boards in the last two years.

Other features of Standard Catalog Of Military Firearms include the author’s introduction and notes on firearms grading and prices. A short overview of the Class III scene written by J.R. Moody takes up pages 12 and 13. Moody is an historian, a full-auto shooter and a collector, and works with Knight’s Armament Company as a consultant.

Schwing’s contributing editors include Moody, Bruce Canfield, Jim Supica, Robert E. Naess, Nick Tilotta, and others. Seven other writers penned commentaries on firearms covered in the book. Readers of Shotgun News, Small Arms Review, and other gun magazines will recognize the names: Charles Cutshaw, David Fortier, Dan Shea, Peter G. Kokalis, Chuck Karwan, Frank James and Paul Scarlata.

Dan Shea’s commentary on shooting the MG52-2A, a water-cooled .50 caliber Browning nicknamed “Fat Alice” is a neat, nostalgic bit of writing. His piece on the 1914 Hotchkiss is informative, and maybe as close as I will come to shooting one. Frank James’s piece on the M3A1 Grease Gun is a compact history of the M3A1, as is Chuck Karwan’s write up on The U.S. Rifle M14.

Besides the commentaries, Standard Catalog Of Military Firearms contains five and a half pages on variations of the Walther PP and PPK, 10 pages on the Luger, and seven pages on the P.38.

According to a staffer at Krause Publications, Schwing’s Standard Catalog Of Firearms is in its 14th edition and is a best seller for the company. The Standard Catalog Of Military Firearms seems likely to follow the path blazed by the earlier volume.

It would be a fine addition to a collection of books on military firearms, or a good start on a collection for a shooter developing an interest in the field.

Supreme Court Gun Cases
By David B. Kopel, Stephen P. Halbrook and Alan Korwan
Bloomfield Press, 4718 E, Cactus, Nr 440, Phoenix, AZ 85032
Phone: 602-996-4020,
Fax 602-494-0679, website: www.gunlaws.com
Copyright 2004
Trade paperback ISBN:
trade paperback -1-889632-05-8,
library/lawyer’s hardcover:
1-889632-12-0
668 pages, US$24.95
Reviewed by Charlie Cutshaw

It is a virtual article of faith that the Supreme Court has rarely ruled on cases involving firearms. The most famous Supreme Court case is that of the United States vs. Miller which was heard and ruled upon in 1939, although this case actually had little effect on firearms case law, as we shall presently see. In fact, the court has ruled on firearms involved cases in no less than 92 instances over nearly 200 years, three dozen of which quote or directly mention the Second Amendment. In the words of Alan Korwan, one of the book’s authors, “The ‘few’ cases…most were referring to was just …passed down from one lazy parrot to another, and I include myself in that class.” In the landmark study that forms the basis of this book, the authors show not only every single case in which the Supreme Court has ruled directly on the Second Amendment, but examine all cases in which guns were involved. In fact, the Supreme Court has ruled on many aspects of firearms, including numerous cases of self defense. In the words of the Mr. Korwan, “…the Court easily and calmly presumes that gun ownership is normative behavior. American people own guns for all the legitimate purposes that make guns so important in a peace-loving society.” In all cases of self defense, the Supreme Court has focused solely on when and how people used their guns and if the use was proper, taking it for granted that people had them.

The authors are all extremely well-qualified authorities on the subject matter of this book. David B. Kopel and Stephen P. Halbrook are both lawyers and highly regarded experts on firearms legal issues. Mr. Kopel is Research Director of the Independence Institute, a civil liberties organization in Colorado. Mr. Halbrook is an attorney in private practice in Fairfax, VA. He has successfully argued three cases before the Supreme Court, including that of the surviving Branch Davidians. Alan J. Korwan is a full time author and consultant specializing in firearms matters. All three gentlemen have written extensively on Second Amendment subjects and have numerous books and articles to their credit. Supreme Court Gun Cases is probably their most ambitious effort, however. The book achieves its stated goal of covering every Supreme Court decision affecting the Second Amendment admirably.

Of course, since the authors are from legal backgrounds, the book features a legal disclaimer as foreword before any substantive matter is discussed. The reader is sternly warned that this book is not the law and is no substitute for it. The foreword goes on to warn that the reader no representation is made that the book covers all case requirements, prohibitions and rules that may exist. The reader is further strongly urged to consult a qualified attorney and local authorities to determine the current status and applicability of the law to any specific situations that may be encountered. “Being able to cite the perfect test case may not matter to a police officer at the side of your car.” The authors go on to say “…what the law says and what the authorities and courts do aren’t always an exact match.” (emphasis in original) Although the disclaimer might be considered a legal way for the authors to duck any responsibility for actions taken by a reader after having read the case law cited within their book, their advice should be duly heeded. Laws are subject to interpretation and the leftist anti-gun, bigoted judge you are facing doesn’t like you because he (or she) doesn’t much like guns. The bottom line is that if you are ever in a case involving the use of guns or self-defense, get a lawyer specializing in those matters. Even with the disclaimer, Supreme Court Gun Cases is a treasure trove of information.

The entire text of the Supreme Court ruling is contained in every significant case. Since most gun owners are not lawyers, each case also features a plain English summary of the case and its meaning. If this weren’t enough, Supreme Court Gun Cases explains at length the legal meaning of the Second Amendment and its ramifications not only for federal, but in state law. Supreme Court Gun Cases not only cites every single case and explains its meaning in plain language, but also contains separate chapters on Gun Rights in State Constitutions, enumerating each state’s constitutional comments on the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms. A separate chapter by Stephen P. Halbrook titled “Firearms Law Deskbook,” is intended primarily for lawyers. This chapter not only includes methods for defense attorneys to use an array of defense tactics, but also shows prosecutors how to use the law to build the case for indictment. Included are what Mr. Halbrook calls “tactical tips” for attorneys. At the end of the chapter, Halbrook provides a “litigation checklist.” A chapter by David Kopel examines what the Supreme Court has said on 35 cases directly involving the Second Amendment, citing not only the case, but examining the rulings by each court, beginning with the current Rehnquist Court and working back to the obscure 1821 case of Houston vs. Moore, the first Supreme Court case which directly mentions the Second Amendment. This chapter discusses each case in some detail, and includes a chart showing the plaintiffs, the main issue in the case, which justice wrote the opinion, the type of opinion, whether or not the opinion supported the individual right clause of the Second Amendment, the part of the clause quoted and the page of Supreme Court Gun Cases on which the summary can be found. Interestingly, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that the Second Amendment is an individual, not a collective state right. In 26 of the 35 Second Amendment cases, the right is stated to be an individual right. In six others, the court’s ruling is ambiguous in that the Court does not make clear its intent. In only two decisions was the Second Amendment not confirmed as an individual right. In only one, the 1972 case of Adams vs. Williams, was the individual right specifically rejected. In the other, Hamilton vs. Regents, the Second Amendment was not directly at issue, but was used to decide the case of two conscientious objectors who refused to participate in militia training. In sum, the conclusions of the Supreme Court of the Second Amendment as an individual right have been overwhelmingly positive. The summaries of the cases make fascinating reading.

There are many gems of information contained through this comprehensive examination of the Supreme Court and firearms. For example, the oft-cited Miller case decided nothing, which according to the authors is the reason why both pro gun and anti gun advocates refer to it for support. Because there was no evidence presented, the court remanded the Miller case back to a lower court for retrial. By the time of this ruling, however, Miller, a small time thug, had been murdered and his co-defendant had plea-bargained his way into a lesser offense. Thus, the mandated retrial and evidentiary hearing never was held. Another noteworthy fact is that the Supreme Court has consistently recognized the legality of armed self defense as a distinct right of American Citizens and that a “duty to retreat” is not obligatory.

Although every significant case is cited in its entirety, the reader does not have to wade through page after excruciatingly boring page of legalese. As previously mentioned, each case is summarized in a readable “gist” that explains the background of the case in question, how it came to the Supreme Court, what the court ruled, what dissent there was and why. These short “gists” make for fascinating reading as to the court’s opinion on firearms ownership and self defense. For those whose attention span is too short even for the “gists,” a one paragraph descriptive index of each case is also included. There are many significant cases that include issues that transcend the Second Amendment. Such cases include the infamous Dred Scott case, in which the Supreme Court decided that a black man was not a full citizen and should not be afforded the full rights of citizenship, including firearms ownership.

The authors are all eminently qualified and Supreme Court Gun Cases is a book that belongs in the library of every citizen concerned not only about the Second Amendment, but about the entire Bill of Rights. It is a book not only for gun owners, but is an invaluable reference for lawyers who may become involved with a case associated with the use of firearms. This isn’t a book that one picks up and reads through like a novel. It is one of those books that a person keeps handy to dip into at random and enlighten one’s knowledge of our rights as citizens. As such, Supreme Court Gun Cases is a scholarly tour de force and is highly recommended.

Zoya Matveevna Smirnova-Medvedeva joined the 25th Chapayev Division of the Soviet Army in July 1941 as a machine gunner. She had wanted to be a flyer but was kept from entering a club to learn to fly because there were so many male applicants. The Chapayev Division had originally been formed during the Russian Civil War or 1918-1921. It fought the “interventionists,” British, French and American troops sent to Russia to oppose the Bolsheviks after the revolution of 1917, and also the monarchists, or White Russians.

One of the Bolshevik secular saints of the period was “Anka the Machine Gunner,” a woman who enlisted in the 25th Chapayev Division and fought in the Civil War.

Medvedeva and Nina Andreyevna Onilova, another female machine gunner, who became Medvedeva’s mentor, took Anka as their role model. Onilova was killed during the fighting near Sevastopol, a port city on the Black Sea during the German drive into the Soviet Union in 1942. She was posthumously decorated as a Gold Star Hero of the Soviet Union 20 years after “ The Great Patriotic War.”

Medvedeva was partially blinded in the defense of Sevastapol, was treated in a hospital, and went back to the front. Her vision was still poor, but she continued to serve until the fall of 1944, becoming a senior lieutenant. She was concussed during an air raid and was invalided out of the Soviet Army. It took 10 years for her to regain some vision, and after that she began to write.

“I am still interested in the history of my famous unit and have not forgotten my promise given to Nina Onilova in the spring of 1942 that, were I to survive, I would tell the story of my comrades-in-arms of the Chapayev Division…”

There are some interesting stories in the book. One is her recently formed unit’s first trip on a troop ship and the difference between them and experienced troops. The best tale was told in Chapter IV, “Breaking Out Of Encirclement.” This told the story of a group of released hospital patients, unarmed, who managed to overpower Germans, gain weapons and transport, and escape from a German encirclement.

One of the problems I found with the book is the lack of detail. Although Medvedeva was supposedly able to strip and reassemble a machine gun blindfolded, she never identifies the gun with more than the generic “heavy machine gun” or “Maxim.” Identification of other weapons, including captured Wehrmacht ones, was equally imprecise.

Another thing that rang false to me was the human perfection of the Soviet troops described in the book. Medvedeva does mention one hurried and unauthorized retreat but most troops fight almost to the last man. Aleksandr Solzhenitzen revealed that political officers in the field were hated for having troops arrested and sent to the Gulag for critical remarks made in letters or in casual conversation. Medvedeva paints the same class of Soviet operatives as beloved by the troops. In On the Road To Stalingrad, we read of only one mild warning against anti-Soviet speech.

The basic work of the book was done while the Soviet Union was still an expansionist military power which supported insurrections around the world and ran a brutal domestic Gulag. Perhaps the book would have been different if written after the Soviet Union had fallen.

WAR OF THE RATS
by David L. Robbins
ISBN 0-553-5831-58135-X
Bantam Books
1540 Broadway
New York, NY 2000
$6.99
Reviewed by Charles Cutshaw

The Germans besieging Stalingrad called it Rattenkrieg —”War of the Rats,” and it is from this term that this riveting novel derives its name. The Germans and the Soviet soldiers opposing them were the “rats” that scurried about in their “runs” – trenches and tunnels – during some of the most intense close combat battles in history. There was no better term for the horror and desperation that characterized the pivotal battle of World War II. City combat is bad enough, but Stalingrad was something else. Rather than a single large battle or siege, Stalingrad was characterized by close combat at only a few meters’ distance. Many small unit actions were fought inside a single building. For the Soviets it was a battle to preserve the Rodina, the Motherland. For the Nazis, Stalingrad was essential to Hitler’s overall strategy of isolating Crimea and Moscow so that the Nazi war machine would have access to much-needed Crimean oil.

War of the Rats is without doubt one of the best, if not the best, historical war novel this reviewer has ever read. It reads like a fictional thriller but is a historically factual account of the Battle of Stalingrad in general capturing the horrible essence of war in almost every detail. War of the Rats at its core is a study of the career of the heroic sniper Vasily Zaitsev and his comrades who wreaked havoc on the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad. In that context the book also chronicles in some detail the events that transpired at Stalingrad during the last months of 1942. Most of the book’s protagonists are historical characters about whom little personal information has been passed on to their posterity, but Robbins has investigated every possible detail of their lives to bring them to life in a way that is rare in modern writing. The sole fictional character is a German corporal, added to provide balance to the book from the German standpoint.

This is not only a book about the Battle of Stalingrad, but a book about sniping under the most horrendous conditions imaginable. Although this reviewer makes no pretense of being a true sniper, he has undergone sniper training, graduated from one sniper school and has knowledge of how snipers work. War of the Rats has the ring of truth. Robbins clearly has done his technical homework in describing combat sniper operations. There are very few technical errors in War of the Rats. Robbins also makes it very clear that sheer number of “kills” does not make a good sniper. Indeed, Zaitsev cashiers a member of his team who is intent only on running up a large number of kills. As mentioned, Robbins has also done his homework from the standpoint of character development. He studied the early life of the primary characters and works this into the book, using it to show how they became effective as snipers and what drove them to the near-fanatical urge to kill as many Germans as possible. Much of the research that went into this book was based on personal notes and letters from people who participated in the battle. Each character has his or her reason for being a sniper and each personality is carefully developed. The reader feels that he actually knows each of the central characters. Only personal thoughts and details are fiction, but the characters are real, thanks to Mr. Robbins’ literary craftsmanship. This book is a tribute to these heroic individuals who stopped the German juggernaut at Stalingrad.

The well-known romance between Vasily Zaitsev and Tania Chernova is included, as is the “duel” between Zaitsev and the German Colonel Thorvald. This is the central theme of the novel, around which all other events and actions revolve. Zaitsev was so effective, reputedly killing upwards of 300 Germans, that he was a real “morale buster” for the German forces at Stalingrad. At the same time, Zaitsev became a national hero to the Russian people due largely to his publicist, political officer (Capt.) Igor Danilov. As Robbins puts it, “…the men in the trenches had come to believe that there was no haven…. Any movement, even while smoking or relieving themselves could draw a sniper’s attention.” While dying for one’s country is bad enough, dying in battle was considered at least a noble end by the Germans. Getting one’s head shot off from 400 meters while taking a pee or having a morning smoke, on the other hand, was not. The German command also realized that Zaitsev was boosting Russian morale, not only at Stalingrad, but nationwide. Thus, the Germans decided to do something about Zaitsev and called upon their premier sniper, Colonel Heinz Thorvald (NOT Major Koenig) to eliminate the Soviet sniper. The events leading up to the duel between Thorvald and Zaitsev have the ring of truth, as does the rest of the novel. The duel between Zaitsev and Thorvald is a study in countersniper operations that might well serve as a text on the subject.

While many of the events described in War of the Rats have little historical detail beyond the fact that they happened, the author of War of the Rats obviously has conducted meticulous research into the subject and fleshes out details of the Battle of Stalingrad at the “grunt” (or rat) level in a way that this reviewer has seldom encountered. War of the Rats immediately grabs the reader “by the stacking swivel” and doesn’t let go until the “ride” is over. It is one of those rare books that is difficult to put down once one begins reading. Robbins is an author on a par with the best. Unlike the writers of “techno thrillers,” who depend mostly on action to keep their thinly written novels moving, Robbins develops his characters while at the same time weaving a historical plot and subplots, all the while keeping up almost nonstop action. War of the Rats is without doubt the best novel to come out of the Stalingrad Battle since Cross of Iron, but in the opinion of this writer it surpasses Willi Heinrich’s classic in terms of readability and realism because the central characters are themselves real. War of the Rats is a MUST READ for any student of military history, World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad, or sniper operations. It is destined to become a classic.

Hitler’s Garands: German Self-Loading Rifles in World War II
by W. Darrin Weaver
ISBN 0-88935-275-5
Collector Grade Publications
PO Box 1046
Coburg, Ontario K9A 4W5
Canada
US $69.95
Reviewed by Charles Cutshaw

Although many have referred to World War II German semiautomatic rifles as German “Garands,” the semiautomatic rifles developed by the German arms industry were not the equal of the Garand. The German rifles functioned acceptably for the most part, save for the earliest versions, but even in their final interations they were not the equal of the American M1 Garand. The two self-loading German rifles were designed by Mauser and Walther and designated Gewehr 41(M) and Gewehr 41(W), respectively. Both, interestingly, were “gas trap” designs, like early Garands, which also proved unreliable and were changed to a more reliable gas port system. Both German rifles were clumsy, too long, lacking in reliability and unpopular with soldiers. The Mauser version of the rifle was particularly unpopular and was relegated for the most part to rear echelon troops because of its heavy weight, complexity and difficulty to maintain.

In 1942 the Herreswaffenamt (HWaA) requested Walther to improve the G41(W)’s design. This was probably not only due to the unpopularity of the Mauser rifle, but also because Mauser Werke was fully occupied with other production. The result was the Gewehr 43. The story of the transition from G41(W) to G43 is beyond the scope of this review, but essentially Walther copied the Soviet SVT gas system and made other modifications to develop the G43, later designated K43. The rifle continued in production as the G/K43 by several manufacturers until the end of the war.

Like most Collector Grade Publications, Hitler’s Garands is meticulously researched and provides a definitive account of its subject. The book begins with an account of Germany’s earliest unsuccessful attempts to develop semiautomatic rifles, dating back to the turn of the 20th Century. These accounts set the background for the developments that followed during World War II. This book is filled with detailed and unique information directed primarily at the collector, but is also an invaluable reference for the student of small arms history. For example, it was a HWaA requirement that virtually mandated the unsuccessful “gas trap” operating system of both G41 variants. The HWaA mandated that no semiautomatic military rifle have a barrel bored to extract gas, that no part on the upper surface move with the automatic loading components and that if the automatic mechanism were to fail, the rifle must still be usable in a manner similar to that of the Model 98. The first two requirements would have eliminated the M1 Garand, one of the finest and most reliable semiautomatic military rifles ever manufactured from competition! Another little known fact covered in detail in Hitler’s Garands is that the G/K43 was produced by slave labor at the notorious Buchenwald Camp and also at the less well-known Neuengamme Camp. Since the gas system of the G43 was derived from that of the Soviet SVT40, there is also a chapter on Soviet semiautomatic rifles. All manufacturers of the G43 are covered in detail, along with magazines, accessories and optics. The use and manufacture of rifles and components in other countries and after World War II are also covered in some detail. And finally, since all of these rifles along with their accessories are now desirable collector’s items, chapters are included that will prove invaluable to the collector. These are “Fakes, Frauds and Fantasies” and “Waffenamts, Codes and Serial Numbers” and “A Summary of Data Sheets” that compares specifications of rifles from all manufacturers. The first chapter covers and debunks popular myths surrounding the rifles and exposes many frauds passed off to collectors. The second covers markings of all rifles and components. The data summaries list all salient characteristics of every variant of German semiautomatic rifle. Finally, the book ranks G/K43 rifles as to their desirability for collectors, provides an “obtainable” collection of representative rifles and lists sources. There is also an extensive bibliography.

In summary, Hitler’s Garands is a high-quality, comprehensive and invaluable reference for the collector and student of military small arms. It was clearly a labor of love on the part of the author. The book is profusely illustrated with high resolution photographs and drawings. This reviewer knows of no single source which provides the amount of data available in Hitler’s Garands. Like most Collector Grade Publications, Hitler’s Garands is not inexpensive, but then there is nothing else available that is quite like it.

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943.
By Antony Beevor
New York, London, Victoria, Toronto, Auckland:
Penguin Books, 1999.
xv + 494 pp., illus., maps, preface, notes, bib., index
USD $1695 pb
ISBN #0-1402-8458 3
Reviewed by Vic Fogle

The battle of the Atlantic was, without a doubt, the most important battle of World War II. Contested above, on and under the ocean’s surface, this hard fought contest lasted the entire six years of the war. Everything else in the European Theater depended upon its outcome.

That concession that made the war was decided by three further battles. They were climactic battles that represented turning points in their theaters of operation; battles at whose beginning Axis forces were at full extension and in which Axis momentum stopped and was rolled back into even contracting areas. These were the battles of Midway, El Alamein, and Stalingrad. After these battles, neither the Japanese nor the Germans would ever command so much territory while their former advances would turn into retreats toward their capitals.

Understandably, considerable literature has accumulated about each of these battles. In his 1999 book Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943, Antony Beevor updates the story of one of these battles by using material which became available only after the reunification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Beevor opens his preface by quoting the poet Tyuchev’s observation that “Russia cannot be understood with the mind.” He supplements purely military material with diaries, letters, interviews, chaplains’ accounts, prisoner interrogations, security police reports, etc., “to convey the unprecedented nature of the fighting and its effects on those caught up in it with little hope of escape”. Here, then, is the theme which unfolds in a time based narrative that proceeds without becoming bogged down in unit histories. Anyone interested in militaria will find this a splendid approach, for it casts much of the description in the words of the participants.

Beginning with the commencement of the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany on June 21, 1941, the author portrays the gigantic battle as an obsessive contest of wills between two tyrants. It was launched by Germany as a war of ethnic conquest which went so far wrong that it developed into a struggle for national survival. Besides being a decisive turning point in the war as a whole, Stalingrad broke the Wehrmacht, caused the destruction of the Romanian, Hungarian, and Italian armies, restored the morale of the Russians, and greatly influenced the shape of the post war world.

The book is far more than merely a recital of numbers. It is worth knowing that Hitler’s invasion force totaled more than three million German soldiers and approximately a million additional pro-German fighting men, along with 3350 tanks, 7000 field guns, and more than 2000 aircraft. Yet to balance reality for those overwhelmed by other accounts of Blitzkrieg, we are also informed that Germany was unprepared for a long war, that the Wehrmacht was desperately short of trucks, and that most of its guns, ambulances and stores were pulled by 600,000 horses. Thus, with most of the infantry on foot, the speed of advance would be comparable to Napoleon’s in 1813, a matter of immense importance.

The Russian campaign was distinguished from all others by its general barbarism towards all and by its especial ruthlessness towards civilians. Hitler regarded the people of the Soviet Union as subhuman, temporary custodians of territory that he coveted. He directed that Communist officials, Jews, and partisans be handed over to German military authorities, and he exonerated German soldiers in advance for murder, rape and looting. The Wehrmacht forestalled potential opposition to its large-scale execution of Jews and gypsies by deliberately confusing that issue with rear area control of partisans. Faced with an inadequate supply by the army, individual German soldiers looted anything they could use from those civilians whom they encountered, while the army was ordered to send seven million tons of grain per year back to Germany. On September 3, 1941, the Germans used 600 Soviet POW’s for their initial experiment with Zyklon B gas at Auschwitz. Of other Red Army soldiers who reached POW camps alive, disease, starvation, exposure, and ill treatment killed more than 3 million of 5.7 million.

But whatever may be said about Hitler, Stalin more than matched him. Beevor quotes Goebbels’ description of Stalin as “a rabbit mesmerized by a snake”, who out of paranoia rejected Churchill’s Ultra derived warnings of a German invasion as an attempt to foment a Russo-German war. Stalin would not believe in the possibility of a German invasion until some twelve hours after it had commenced. Up until this time he “remained terrified of provoking Hitler”, and when forced to accept the reality of invasion, Stalin, “whose bullying nature contained a strong streak of cowardice”, contemplated suing for peace by ceding to Germany most of the Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Baltic States. Of course, Stalin would not have been in that position had he not accepted German-planted misinformation suggesting treason with “an inimitable mixture of paranoia, sadistic megalomania and a vindictiveness for old slights” that resulted in the execution, imprisonment, or dismissal of 36,671 Red Army officers, including 404 out of 706 brigade commanders and above. Stalin further decreed that everyone who fell into German hands for any reason was a traitor. As a result, the Red Army executed 13,500 of its own soldiers at Stalingrad alone. After the war, when Red Army soldiers who had been captured wounded and had lived through German POW camps were repatriated, Stalin had them sent straight to the Gulag. So much was Stalin hated and feared that 50,000 of his own people fought on the side of the Wehrmacht in German uniform.

Both armies, along with Russian partisans, looted anything they could use from civilians. While the Ukrainians initially considered the Germans to be liberators, Hitler’s race war and exploitation compelled Soviet citizens to defend Russia and its regime. Meanwhile, Stalin, fearful that the advancing Germans might be able to live off the land, instituted a scorched earth retreat that condemned many of his own people to starvation and to death by freezing.

Interestingly enough, Beevor concludes that a major battle for Stalingrad was not really inevitable until September. Hitler became obsessed with the city when, as the author puts it, “the war of movement turned into a war of virtually stationary annihilation”. He came to believe that winning the war on the eastern front meant taking the Caucasus and that he was being denied victory by a city named for his hated enemy. On August 23, the Luftwaffe carpet bombed the city with 1200 aircraft then hit it again two days later. When Stalin heard that the battle had reached the Volga, he decided to make a stand there, alarmed that his country would be divided and that he would lose both the waterway and the oil fields. But as the Russian winter began to arrive, only a few realized that Richthofen’s bombing raids had “turned the city into a perfect killing ground” for the Russians to defend.

“Not a house is left standing,’ a lieutenant wrote home, ‘there is only a burnt-out wasteland, a wilderness of rubble and ruins which is well-nigh impassable… In parkland, there are tanks or just tank turrets dug-in, and anti-tank guns concealed in the cellars make it very hard going for our advancing tanks.

Much of the fighting consisted not of major attacks, but of relentless, lethal little conflicts. The battle was fought by assault squads, generally six or eight strong… They armed themselves with knives and spades for silent killing, as well as sub-machine guns and grenades…The assault squads sent into the sewers were strengthened with flamethrowers and sappers brining explosive charges.”

Beevor also showcases the differences in fighting methods between the two adversaries. Russian defenders early noticed that the Wehrmacht disliked close quarter fighting, especially at night, preferring instead unexceptional daylight action under a Luftwaffe umbrella. Consequently Russian generals negated the air superiority advantage by ordering their forces to remain within fifty yards of the Germans forcing them to fight house to house. Germans found artillery fire in the city to be disconcerting and shellbursts brought down both masonry and shrapnel. The Russians also did everything possible to maintain pressure and to stretch the Germans nerves:

“If only you could understand what terror is, a German soldier wrote in a letter captured by the Russians. At the slightest rustle, I pull the trigger and fire off tracer bullets in bursts from the machinegun. The compulsion to shoot at anything that moved at night, often setting off fusillades from equally nervous sentries down a whole sector, undoubtedly contributed to the German expenditure of over 25 million rounds during the month of September alone”.

The most gripping parts of the book are Beevor’s smooth and complementary choices of varied participant descriptions of the sights and sounds of the battle.

“The air is filled, wrote a panzer officer, with the infernal howling of diving Stukas, the thunder of flak and artillery, the roar of engines, the rattle of tank tracks, the shriek of the launcher and Stalin organ [Katyusha rocket launcher], the chatter of sub-machine guns back and forth, and all the time one feels the heat of a city burning at every point. The screams of the wounded affected men most”.

“Fighting in Stalingrad…represented a new form of warfare, concentrated in the ruins of civilian life. The detritus of war-burnt-out tanks, shell cases, signal wire and grenade boxes-was mixed with the wreckage of family homes-iron bedsteads, lamps and household utensils…German infantrymen loathed house-to-house fighting. They found such close-quarter combat, which broke conventional military boundaries and dimensions, psychologically disorienting… Often an enemy was unrecognizable, with every uniform impregnated by the same dun-colored dust.

“German generals do not seem to have imagined what awaited their divisions in the ruined city. They lost their great Blitzkrieg advantages and were in many ways thrown back to First World War techniques, even though their military theorists had argued that trench warfare had been an aberration in the art of war. The Sixth Army, for example, found itself having to respond to Soviet tactics by reinventing the ‘storm wedges’ introduced in January 1918: assault groups of ten men armed with a machinegun, light mortar and flame-throwers for clearing bunkers, cellars and sewers. “In its way, the fighting in Stalingrad was even more terrifying than the impersonal slaughter at Verdun. The close-quarter combat in ruined buildings, bunkers, cellars and sewers was soon dubbed “Rattenkrieg” [war of the rats] by German soldiers. It possessed a savage intimacy which appalled their generals who felt they were rapidly losing control over events. The enemy is invisible, wrote General Strecker to a friend. Ambushes out of basements, well remnants, hidden bunkers and factory ruins produce heavy casualties among our troops”.

When German tanks and infantry attacked together, they found themselves skirting strengthened buildings into channels that the Russians had mined. Then Russian trench mortars separated infantry from tanks, and the tanks were then attacked by dug-in camouflaged anti tank guns and T-34’s.

Above all, the Russians made Satlingrad a never ending, twenty-four hour a day battle. Besides the dusk and dawn attacks, Russians fired flares at odd intervals to suggest the possibility of additional attacks. Every night Russian aviators raided German strong points. Russian night bombers drew fire from numerous flak batteries, contributing to the din and the Germans’ nervousness, while small biplanes would approach, switch off their engines, and glide silently to their targets, further alarming the Wehrmacht. But as deadly as the aviators’ artillery spotters made life for the German, they were not the only threats from above. There were also the Russian snipers.

What Deevor calls “a new cult of ‘sniperism’” arose, with recognition and awards for “the largest number of Fritzes killed”. Upon reaching forty kills, the sniper would receive the For Bravery medal and the title “noble sniper”. Best known was Vasily Zaitsev with 149 kills. Sergeant Passar, a head shot specialist, had 103. Studentov was credited with 124, Ilin 185, Zikan 224. Anatoly Chekhov once bagged seventeen in two days; he was particularly skilled at hiding in the tops of tall buildings, where he employed a flash hider and tried to have a white wall behind him. At least two Soviet snipers used remotely operated flags or scarecrows to lure Germans into exposing themselves. If there was similar sniping activity on the German side, Beevor does not say so. His only mention of German sniping is to doubt the story of the confrontation between Zaitsev and the head of the German sniper school that served as a basis for the film Enemy at the Gates.

Beevor implies that it was during the battle for Satlingrad that Hilter lost most of his tenuous at best hold on reality, becoming increasingly lost in his maps and in making intuitive, grandiose plans for military units that no longer effectively existed. “Hilter’s notion of the power of the will had completely parted company with military logic. He was fixated upon the idea that if the Sixth Army ever withdrew from Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht would never return. He had sensed that his was the high-water mark of the Third Reich”. It was at this time that Hitler demanded that “Fortress Stalingrad” be held “whatever the circumstances.”

The remainder of the book, from the time Hitler ended any chance of a breakout, is a depressing, harrowing recital of the disintegration of Paulus’ Sixth Army. Some of the elements of this unraveling, upon which it is unnecessary to dwell in detail, include exhaustion of supplies, death by battle, death by starvation, death by freezing, death by disease, death by ill treatment, and cannibalism.

Unfortunately, the most interesting question of the Russo-German conflict is one that Beevor does not address in detail: the question of whether Hitler’s adherence to his allies, Japan and Italy, cost him victory in Russia.

It is well known that Hitler did not plan to fight the U.S. until 1944 or 1945, when he would have a Navy of 300 submarines and an impressive surface fleet. Yet he allowed himself to be finessed into declaring war on the U.S. four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by hints from the Japanese that if he did so, they would attack the Soviet Union from the Pacific side. This attack never occurred.

But it was the Italians who were much more of an impediment to German plans. Part of the reason Hitler was compelled to postpone his invasion of Russia from May 15 until June 21 was because of the need to extricate Mussolini from a series of ill advised adventures in quest of booty and territory. At the same time that Hitler was losing five critical weeks of good weather, his already under-supplied armed forces consumed prodigious quantities of supplies in aiding the Italians. Mussolini, who hoped to establish a second Roman Empire, had begun by attacking Ethiopia in 1935. This invasion was followed by similar forays into Albania in 1939 and Greece in 1940, but Italian failures caused Germany to have to attack the Greeks in late 1940 and the Yugoslavs in 1941 in order to rescue the Italians. Moreover, Italy’s loss to North Africa to Britain in January of 1941 brought Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Corps to the rescue the following month. Rommel’s success in January 1942 came from German command of the Mediterranean, resulting from air superiority gained by Luftwaffe units brought back from Russia. In mid-summer of 1941, the Afrika Corps alone required 40,000 to 50,000 tons of supplies per month, with additional quantities for the Italians. Germany continued to try to supply the Afrika Corps until Britain finally ended the struggle in North Africa in May of 1943, following the Battle of El Alamein. Compare this tonnage with the 700 tons per day (21,000 per month) that Beevor tells us Hitler wanted the Luftwaffe to supply to the Sixth Army to sustain it in the final days at Stalingrad. The supplies and transport which Germany squandered in the Balkans and North Africa, where Germany had almost no legitimate national interests, could easily have made the difference in Hiltler’s attempt to conquer Russia. A detailed consideration would have been most intriguing.

This book is likely to be among the best regarded treatments of this titanic struggle for some years. Readers should be aware that it stresses description over interpretation, but in description it is very good indeed, and it is heartily recommended.

James Webb served as Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan Administration and as an Assistant Secretary Of Defense. He was also a decorated combat Marine in Vietnam. He knows war and politics. Lost Soldiers deals with both.

The book is set in present-day Vietnam. Protagonist Brandon Condley, a former Marine with five years of combat in Vietnam, found Asia more congenial than the United States after the war. He drifted around Asia, working for the CIA, and as a security agent for private companies. As the book opens Condley has come back to Vietnam to assist Hanson Muir, a forensic anthropologist, in retrieving the remains of US soldiers lost during the war.

Those are some of the lost soldiers referred to in the title. Condley and his cyclo driver, Dzung, a former South Vietnamese soldier and war hero, are two of the others. Dzung was “reeducated” in the mountain camps after the fall of Saigon, and is a denizen of District 4 in the city, a slum where former anti-communists are forced to live. Out of loyalty to a former brother in arms, Condley hires Dzung and his cyclo whenever he needs to travel in the city.

The respect that can develop between former enemies is also a part of Lost Soldiers. Condley and Muir work with Colonel Pham, a former Viet Cong who rose to rank and power in the new regime. Pham has come to respect Condley and the respect is returned.

Vietnam is a character in the novel too. Condley loves the country, despite the war. It turns out that Vietnam has had the same effect on others, including an old, sick, Russian soldier, living in poverty in Moscow.

I was never in the service, or in Vietnam, but a vet once described the coast of South Vietnam to me. He said that, seen from a helicopter, it was “the most beautiful coast in the world.” I think the look on his face as he said that would have been on Condley’s face, when he thought about Viet Nam when he was away from it.

The straightforward retrieval of the remains of an American serviceman becomes a mystery when Muir discovers that the dead man is not who he appears to be. The dogtags with the body actually belong to an American deserter who dropped from sight during the war. Unraveling the mystery leads Condley and Muir to Australia, back to Viet Nam, and then sends Condley and Colonel Pham to Moscow.

The investigation leads to bloodshed which involves Condley, Dzung and a member of state security who also discovers some respect for an old enemy.

Webb has written four other novels, Fields Of Fire, A Sense Of Honor, A Country Such As This, and Something To Die For. I own the first and third books on this list, and I intend to acquire Lost Soldiers.

Webb is often ignored by the media, possibly because he fought in Vietnam and worked for Reagan. That is unfortunate since Webb has important things to say and says them well. More information about Webb and his books can be found at his website, www.jameswebb.com.

Silent Warrior
By Charles Henderson
A Berkley Book
Published by:
The Berkley Publishing Group
A division of Penguin Putnam Inc.
New York, NY 10014
ISBN 0-425-17660-6
Copyright 2000 by Charles Henderson
$19.98 from Military Book Club
Reviewed by Lee Arten

Silent Warrior is the sequel to Charles Henderson’s earlier book about Carlos Hathcock, Marine Sniper. The subtitle is, “The Marine Sniper’s Vietnam Story Continues.” Henderson says in the preface that some of the stories in Silent Warrior came from 300 pages of material the publisher cut from Marine Sniper. Other information came from Henderson’s meetings with Hathcock, and print reports and documents supplied by Jim Land. ( Captain Jim Land was Hathcock’s commanding officer during part of his service in Vietnam.)

Henderson interviewed former Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops during a 1994 visit to Vietnam. He also discussed the war with General Tran Van Tra, who was Commander in Chief of the Viet Cong during the war.

Some of the stories in the book are about Hathcock’s early time in the Marine Corps, including his shooting career before Vietnam. Henderson also tells what Hathcock’s devotion to Marine competitive shooting eventually cost him. Because of burns suffered when a command detonated mine blew up an amtrac he was riding on, Hathcock’s skin would crack and bleed when he wore tight shooting jackets. His sweatshirt would be covered with blood when he left the line. White cotton gloves he wore to pull targets would be stained red when he was done with his stint in the pits. Hathcock finally had to stop shooting matches, but continued as a rifle team coach. He had to leave the Corps in 1979 after 19 years and 10 months of active service due to the worsening of his multiple sclerosis.

Henderson met Hathcock after the sniper retired. Hathcock had been suspicious of journalists since a story about him appeared in Sea Tiger, a publication of III Marine Amphibious Force, Vietnam. That piece was the first real publicity about US snipers in Vietnam and led to the VC putting a bounty on his head. However, Henderson was also a career Marine. Hathcock and he became friends and Henderson was able to write Marine Sniper and Silent Warrior.

Hathcock took up shark fishing after a two-year depression over leaving the Corps, and found that life had new interest. One of the shark stories in Silent Warrior is of Hathcock, Henderson, and several other Marines, fishing in a gale with 15 foot seas. Hathcock caught and released a blue shark, estimated to weigh over 300 pounds, on that trip.

Charles Henderson spent more than 23 years in the Marine Corps, retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer after the Gulf War. He has written for a variety of publications and also runs cattle in Peyton, Colorado.

Silent Warrior is available from the Military Book Club and from some chain bookstores.

AK-47 and Kalashnikov Variation
by Masami Tokoi, 1993
ISBN 4-499-20582-4
Softcover
$54.50
Published by:
Dai-Nippon Kaiga Co., Ltd.,
Tokyo, Japan
Available from:
Kinokuniya Bookstores
1581 Webster St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 567-7625
e-mail: san_francisco@kinokuniya.com
Reviewed by H. Kim

Infamous worldwide for having perhaps the world’s most repressive gun control laws, Japan is paradoxically the source of some of the most remarkable gun books ever published, which feed a strong domestic cult interest in firearms. These books, rarely seen outside of Japan, are virtual firearms museums, lavishly illustrated with full color photos taken with a level of care usually reserved for antiques and artworks. Two such books reviewed here devote encyclopedic coverage to the two most ubiquitous small arms in the world today: the Avtomat Kalashnikov and the M-16. It is clearly evident from the outstanding quality of these books that extinguishing a people’s ability to legally own guns will still never extinguish their fascination with them.

We will begin with the AK47 and Kalashnikov Variation. This book is a photo encyclopedia of the world’s Kalashnikov models, listed alphabetically by nation of origin. Each model is shown in large full color side views, complemented with close up views of the unique model features and markings. Being built by more nations and in greater numbers than any other military rifle in history, AK-47 and Kalashnikov Variation truly exposes us to this fascinating subject in greater detail than any previous work.

Coverage begins with the Soviet AK models, starting with the earliest production AK-47 with a stamped receiver. Kalashnikov’s basic assault rifle action has proven to be one of the most versatile ever designed, being adapted for use as a light machine gun, SAW, sniper rifle, and SMG, all of which are covered in the book as the PK, RPK, SVD, and AKSU respectively. A rarely seen transition model to the AKSU, called simply the AKMS carbine, is also included, with closeups displaying unique vestigal vertical foregrip and large radially finned muzzle booster.

This book’s coverage of national AK variants is commendable, as both the straight clones like those of Red China, and the more evolved models like the Valmet, Galil, and Czech Vz-58 receive equal emphasis. Norinco and Valmet collectors will appreciate the attention given to the semi-auto sporters sold in the mid-80s, including the Type 56S-2 sidefolder and M-82 bullpup. One will certainly weep at the superb Finnish Sako M-90 with its FAL style sidefolding stock, forever barred from US import by its debut after the Bush import ban of 1989. Some truly bizarre AK variants exist possibly for the user’s (or victim’s?) comic relief, such as the Polish riot control WG-GS-4 net throwing gun, and bumper-chromed AKMS sold to the bodyguards of the Iranian Ayatollahs. The numerous close-ups of unique model features and markings will help in readily identifying any AK one may encounter, or more often to identify the bewildering variety of AK parts found at gun shows.

An entire section of this comprehensive book is devoted to accessories such as bayonets, grenade launchers, night vision sights, and silencers. As a bonus, the Soviet AK-47 manual is reprinted in its entirety, though unfortunately still in Russian.

Text and photo captions are in Japanese, which surprisingly is no obstacle to enjoying this book, as the abundance and quality of photos easily tell the complete story of the AK. Fortunately all model names and nations of origin are listed in English, which will sufficiently guide one through the pictures. An English translation supplement published by one previous importer (though not the current one) can be occasionally found at gun shows.

M-16 and Stoner’s Rifle
by Masami Tokoi, 1991
ISBN 4-499-20567-0
Softcover
$54.50
Published by:
Dai-Nippon Kaiga Co., Ltd.,
Tokyo, Japan
Available from:
Kinokuniya Bookstores
1581 Webster St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 567-7625
e-mail: san_francisco@kinokuniya.com
Reviewed by H. Kim

This companion volume to the AK-47 and Kalashnikov Variation covers the prolific M-16 and Stoner weapons family in a work of equal superiority. The enormous range of famed firearms designer Eugene Stoner’s designs, in their many incarnations as assault rifles, carbines, HBARs, belt feds, and SMGs, is showcased in large high quality full color photographs. The M-16 series is just a part of Stoner’s creative fountain, which has greatly enriched the world of small arms development.

From the first Armalite AR-15 prototype to the M-4 Carbine, this book shows all of the numerous M-16 variants in between such as the CAR-15 SMG, belt fed HBAR, 9 mm SMG, and even the Colt Sporter models. Developmental efforts like the gas piston M-16, and the ACR trials rifle are also included. One of these models, the prototype CAR-15 SMG, with its cut down M-16 handguard and stock, could even pass as the derisively fabled Matell toy. Some M-16 inspired designs emerged from Asia in which the troublesome direct gas system was replaced with a conventional piston. These models, the Korean Daewoo K-2 and Taiwanese T-65, receive coverage together with an outright M-16 clone from Communist China, the CQ-311. Though the superb pictures of this book tell the M-16 story better than thousands of words in a regular English language book, one fascinating picture remains unexplained by lack of text: an underbarrel flamethrower attachment in use by a Special Forces soldier.

Extensive coverage of Stoner’s other weapons, the AR-10, Stoner 63, and AR-18 truly set this book in a class of its own. Shown together with the commonly pictured Sudanese and Portugese AR-10 models are prototypes found in no other book: the AR-101 semiauto sporter (fully postban configured back in 1960!), 7.62×39 Finnish trials model using AK mags, and shorty carbine (though not named CAR-10). Stoner 63s appear in their full range of configurations with some nice detail views of the belt feed. The AR-16, large caliber ancestor of the AR-18, and even the AR-18 shorty model make their appearances as well.

Like its companion volume on the AK, a section on night vision sights and scopes is included in this book, and to close in a humorous note, the Vietnam-era M-16A-1 operating manual “comic book” is reprinted in its entirety.

M-16 and Stoner’s Rifle is simply the most comprehensive work on the Stoner weapons family yet published. One can only hope the publisher Dai-Nippon Kaiga continues this series with further volumes on the FAL and HK family.

Reviewer’s Note: When ordering from the cited source, ask for Suzuki. Be sure to specify the ISBN number as this is a special order item only.

Stage two tested accuracy. Two six-inch round paper targets were stapled to IPSC type targets set at five, 10 and 15 yards. Shooters had to fire at least three shots into each target with one pull of the trigger. Seconds were added for each shot that missed the paper plates. Shooters were also penalized for firing more than one burst on a paper target.

Stage three tested speed. It was a timed course, shot from the underarm or hip position. Targets were four IPSC targets at eight yards and one steel target at 11 yards. Each paper target had to have at least two hits and the steel target had to be knocked down. I had a mag that malfunctioned on this stage and it hurt me badly.

SMG Basics is shot at every match, and makes up the Short Match. The field courses vary. At the June match, Field Course One was shot from a bunker and had a 45 second time limit. A mixture of 24 paper and steel targets were set in front of the bunker, some nearly hidden in the grass. I was told that paper targets needed three hits to count and steel targets should be knocked over. The winner on this course, Marc Siem, got all the targets in 15 seconds. I took the whole time available and still left several targets standing. Bobbling a mag change with my Madsen M50 didn’t help.

Field Course Two had a mixture of paper shoot and no-shoot targets, which had to be hit at least twice, and three steel cylinders as stop plates. Angles were important here since shots that went through one target and hit another counted. Knocking down all the cylinders too early stopped a shooter’s run, even if the shooter’s targets remained. I watched several shooters run the course and didn’t see anyone knock over the cylinders early, but it added a certain amount of anxiety to the stage. Richard Paulson won this stage with a 61.89 second time. I shot a time of 105.74, just a little above the average score on Field Course Two. That score included a hit on one no-shoot with a shot that went low on a shoot target, and hit a no-shoot behind it on the right side.

I got to the match, held at a gravel pit at 3180 Bergum Road, outside Mount Horeb, at about 9:30am, and was heading for home by about 12:30pm.

This included the usual amount of standing around, talking, and even a visit to the on-site gunsmith, Craig Miller, to have a balky magazine fixed. I could have been done sooner, if I’d shot more and talked less.

The match was put on by Wisconsin Class Three Sports Committee (WICTSC) and Arnold Harris, secretary-treasurer of the organization, was a match organizer.

Harris also officiated at the Shooter’s Meeting. He said the match was about,

“…safety, safety, safety, fun, more damn safety, and fun.”

Except when being fired on a course, on the practice range, or while cooling down, all guns had to be empty and cased. Between stages each one had a dowel rod run down the barrel to be sure it was clear, and then a chamber flag was inserted into the action. Although the match was held in a gravel pit with rock walls, I didn’t see one bounceback in the time I spent there. After the match, in a telephone interview, Harris told me that some bouncebacks had occurred June 24. He said a six foot high earth embankment will be built against the pit wall to reduce or eliminate bouncebacks, “from rounds striking hard rocks in the wall.” The match organizers are going to alter the setup somewhat, and have the shooters shoot in squads, to speed up the matches.

I thought the June match, which had 43 competitors, was well run, safe, and worth the time I spent. I recommended it to a man I met at a private shoot in Northern Wisconsin in July, and I’m also trying to get a couple of my friends to make the run to Mount Horeb with me.

The WICTSC holds four outdoor subgun matches a year. It also cooperates in a series of indoor subgun matches in winter at the Shooters Sports Center, 4900 Six Mile Rd, Racine, WI. It costs $20 to shoot the full match at Mount Horeb, ($15 for WICTSC members). The Short Match, (just SMG basics) costs $10.

For more information write WICTSC, PO Box 16, Mount Horeb, WI 53572. call 608-798-4833, or email Arnold Harris at ftdata@chorus.net.

Along with the gun, Meyer brought the caisson, period uniforms, original ammunition boxes, and several historical posters. All of the displays contained “original, archival material,” and Meyer says the gun is “…original, right down to the canvas covers.” In the field, two quarter horses or mules would have pulled the gun, and the non-commissioned officer in charge would have ridden another mount. There would have been five members of the gun crew in all. Two rode on the limber, and two on the horses that pulled the gun.

Meyer didn’t bring horses with him. On June 4, the Expo opened with a parade, which included the Gatling. During the parade the Gatling was pulled through town by two Escanaba area horses. Meyer complimented the horses, but at the fairgrounds he depended on his partner and assistant, Bruce Rene, and a couple of volunteers to wheel the gun into position for the demonstrations. I saw two of the five live-fire sessions, and there was no shortage of volunteers to move the gun. A friend helped once, and said the Gatling was easy to move around.

The demonstrations were done in the infield of the fairground racetrack with a pile of sand about fifty yards out for a backstop. The targets were water-filled milk jugs, and pieces of 2 by 12. Battery D did its demonstration first, showing how a Civil War Union artillery unit operated, making lots of smoke and noise with their cannons. When they were done Meyer discussed the history of the Gatling, including the fact that the current Vigilante anti-missile system, and other modern weapons, are basically electrically operated Gatlings. Then it was time for the shooting.

The Gatling carriage itself can carry 1,600 rounds of .30-40 ammunition in compartments. The limber can carry 9,000 rounds and 100,000 more can be packet into the caisson. During each Gatling demonstration between 1,200 and 1,400 rounds were fired, with Meyer acting as loader in all demonstrations. He said when he first acquired the gun he couldn’t wait to fire it. Now he finds it a bit of an anti-climax and is content to fill the Bruce Feed. “Shooting it is like grinding sausage,” Meyer said.

In the first demonstration, the Gatling’s elevation was locked down and the windage adjustment was loosened so the gun could be swept through a line of milk jugs. The firing began slowly, but it didn’t take long to make the milk jugs jump and explode. When the jugs had been finished off, the rest of the ammunition was fired at the plank. A large hole was quickly chopped in the left side of the board. The board wasn’t cut in two, but only because the ammunition ran out.

The second demonstration was done a little differently, since the host of a local outdoors TV show was filming it. The gun was fired, then made safe, so the host could position his camera on a tripod ahead and to the right of the gun, for a dramatic shot. He left the camera running, then stepped back while several bursts were fired. After the gun was safe again, he retrieved the camera and continued filming from behind the firing line. This time the gun was fired more quickly. The faster runs showed that the loaders really are the limiting factor in the Gatling’s rate of fire. Meyer had some trouble keeping up as Rene sighted on the targets and cranked off shots.

A case separation occurred about half way through the second demonstration. One case broke on firing and a section a bit shorter than a .45 ACP case was ejected with the intact .30-40 brass. The rest of the case stuck in the chamber and the next round fed stuck inside of it. Firing was stopped, the bolt was pulled, the chamber was cleared, the bolt was replaced, and firing resumed. It took more time than an IPSC shooter’s tap, rack bang drill, but not as much as you might expect. The broken case was dated 1931, and had been reloaded several times. The stoppage was the only one in the 2,000 plus rounds fired June 5. Meyer said tough old military cases usually work better than softer commercial ones and original boxes work better with the Bruce Feed than later reproductions.

The load Meyer and Rene developed for the Gatling uses a compressed charge of H4831 to drive a 220 grain roundnose bullet to about 2600 feet per second. Meyer said the load is too hot for Winchester 95s or Krags, but it works well in the Gatling.

Evidence that this Gatling was in Cuba with Roosevelt is strong but circumstantial. “We can tell where the gun wasn’t,” Meyer said. It is in the right caliber for the period. On page 108 of The Rough Riders, Theodore Roosevelt states that the Gatlings used in Cuba, fired “…the Krag ammunition…” Meyer’s gun also has bolts for the armor that was only fitted on guns that went to Cuba. Meyer does not have the armor, but he does have evidence that his gun followed the route of the Roosevelt guns after they were brought back from the “Splendid Little War.” The last stop on that route was the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.

At Aberdeen in the 1950s Gatlings like his were used as test beds for “new” rotary barrel weapon designs. Meyer said, “Maxim and Browning (guns) replaced Gatlings, but Gatling never lost favor in some circles—because of its reliability.” One of his posters shows Gatling ammunition from 1862-1962. It starts with the blackpowder .50-70 round and ends with the 20 and 30 millimeter rounds for the Vulcan and Vigilante anti-missile systems. “Nothing is really new,” Meyer says, “People just forgot about Gatlings for a while.”

The Model of 1895 was new to me. I’d never seen a Gatling in the brass and steel before, and found it very impressive. Although I wasn’t able to fire the gun because of liability concerns, it was interesting to see it at work. Even at 100 years old the Gatling would still be a formidable weapon—if it came to that. The main problem with it—with .30-40 cases recently discontinued by Winchester and 220 grain .30 caliber bullets sometimes difficult to find—might be getting enough ammunition to fill up its Bruce Feed.

I spent some time looking at the tanks and the guns out front, but once inside I went almost directly to The Arms Room. A placard there states;

“One cannot understand military history without some awareness of the development of small arms—notably the rifle, pistol and machine gun.”

Specimens in the room give clear examples of that development. The earliest Arms Room exhibits date from the Indian Wars and the Civil War. World War I is well represented with German Maxims, British Vickers, M98 Mausers, 1903 Springfields and a Mauser Tank-Gewehr M1918.

World War II subguns on display include the British STEn, German MP40, U.S. Thompson, an M3, and a PPsh. The battle rifle case holds an M-1, an M1 Carbine, an M-14, a couple of M16s, two AKs, an RPK and a BAR. Single shot and bolt action rifles from America’s wars are also displayed.

Several pistols I saw were interesting and unusual. One, a 1911 with adjustable sights, was the “personal weapon”of Major General Chester J. Moeglein. Another Colt, a 1903 in .32 ACP, was also donated by General Moeglein. A Spanish pistol, an Astra 300 or a lookalike, was displayed too. According to the card it was not a simple semiautomatic pistol, but could be made into, “a rudimentary submachine gun.” The card also said the pistol was only produced from 1934 to 1936. Other pistols of note included a Nazi-marked 1910/22 Browning.

The museum is dedicated to preserving the military history of the State of Minnesota. Since the state has been involved in American conflicts since 1861, the exhibits also give a good history of America’s wars from then until now. Minnesota also has quite a record of military firsts. Museum Director David L. Hanson, Colonel USA Retired, ran down the list for me in an interview at the museum.

Minnesota was the first state to provide militia troops to Lincoln’s army in 1861. The first armor unit deployed for World War II was the 194th Tank Battalion from Brainard. It was sent to the Philippines in 1941 and was involved in fighting the invading Japanese army in a delaying action before the Philippines fell. Many of its men were on the Bataan Death March. On November 19, 1943 the first shell fired by American ground forces against the Germans was fired by Battery B, 175th Field Artillery Battalion of the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard at Medjez-El-Bab, Tunisia. Members of a Minnesota Naval Militia unit crewed a deck gun aboard the destroyer USS Ward. An hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Ward and the Minnesota gun crew fired the first shot against the Japanese in Hawaii, sinking a two-man Japanese mini-sub that was trying to enter the harbor.

The museum also has material on General John W. Vessey, Jr. He enlisted in the 34th Infantry Battalion of the Minnesota National Guard in May of 1939, and received a battlefield commission at Anzio in 1944. After World War II, he stayed in the army and rose to wear four stars. He became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff in June of 1982 and served in that position until October, 1985.

Exhibits, which include correct firearms and equipment for the times, cover The Indian Wars, The Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm. My wife and I thought the exhibits were well designed. Our kids are still a little museum-resistant after a family trip through Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas and a little of Montana two years ago. Say “Buffalo Hide Scraper made from a rifle barrel,” and they cover their ears and wail. All three of them—17, 15 and eight—seemed to have a good time at the Minnesota Military Museum. It didn’t hurt that there were no hide scrapers displayed, or that climbing was allowed on the tanks outside the museum.

Director David L. Hanson, Colonel USA Retired told me that the museum, “caters to the tourists during the season.” It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday from late May to early September, but closed on National Holidays. The rest of the year it is open Thursdays and Fridays from 9 a.m to 4 p.m. Tours for groups may be arranged by calling ahead. The suggested donation is $2 per adult with military personnel and children admitted free. Annual memberships start at $18. The Museum can be reached at (320) 632-7374, or by mail at Minnesota Military Museum, Camp Ripley, 15000 Hwy., 115, Little Falls, MN 56345. The email address is mnmuseum@brainerd.net., and there is a also information available on the Web through the Explore Minnesota website.

By Lee Arten

The Ingram Model 6 in .45 ACP, made by the Police Ordnance Company of Los Angeles, CA is a very simple gun. In this case, however, simple works. Externally the Model 6 bears some resemblance to the Thompson, especially in the police model with the vertical handgrip. Looking at drawings of both guns shows that the Thompson has a lot more going on inside to get basically the same results as the Ingram.

Internally, the tubular receiver, the large spring and heavy bolt look similar to those in the STEn, the Sterling and some other open bolt subguns. Despite that the Ingram is a singular design. One difference between it and other subguns from about the same era is that the trigger functions as the selector. A short pull gives semi-auto fire, and pulling it back as far as possible allows for full-auto. According to Military Small Arms of the 20th Century “the system is today, fairly commonplace, but at the time of the Ingram’s introduction was still something of a novelty”.

I’d never used such a trigger until I bought the Ingram Model 6 Military, one of the Stembridge Movie guns from Long Mountain Outfitters. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but I’ve been impressed. Single shots are very easy to squeeze off, and despite the “double action” feature, the trigger is better than that on some other subguns.

The Ingram starts out about a half pound heavier empty than the M50 Reising, the subgun I’ve shot most. It gains about three quarters of a pound over a loaded Reising with the addition of a full 30 round magazine and runs faster than the Reising, too. With reloads my Reising runs about 575 rpm according to a Speed Timer 3000. The same timer puts the Ingram at 600 rpm with the same loads. That is just what the specs in The World’s Submachine Gun Vol 1 by Nelson say it should be.

Despite running faster than the Reising, the Ingram seemed more controllable. My friend Mike, my son, Isaac and I had all shot Reisings and MP5’s before. Mike had also shot Thompsons and some other subguns at Knob Creek on a visit a few years ago. I’d fired others including Thompsons, a Mauser 712 machinepistol, and the Beretta 38/42. The night we shot the M6 for the first time, the targets were Beast Products steel bowling pin swingers set at about 15 yards. We shot single shots and bursts and didn’t find the targets hard to hit with the Ingram despite the open bolt subguns’ reputation for aim-destroying clunk and vibration. At that range we didn’t think even the MP5 would have shot much better. Because of the Reising’s hard trigger, the Ingram was easier to shoot. Controllability seemed to be enhanced by the M6’s heavy tubular receiver. The Ingram was almost six inches shorter than the Reising and most of the M6’s weight seemed to be between the hands.

In burst fire the Ingram didn’t seem to start to rear up and jolt backward until after the first several rounds had gone down range. Fired in short bursts, it stayed on the target quite well. It didn’t hang like an M3, but the M3 runs about 250 rpm slower, too.

We were shooting in a gravel pit and had only an hour before dark. Because time was short, we put whatever reloads came to hand into the Ingram mag. Sometimes there were nickel and brass cased ammo with FMJ and RNL bullets mixed in the same magazine. With a singular exception they all fired. The exception was the last round loaded into the magazine. That round didn’t feed, except once in a short-loaded stick. Instead, it would get bumped forward into the front of the magazine or the edge of the chamber. Lead bullets were gashed and pushed back into the case. Reloads with hardball weren’t cut, but the bullets were sometimes pushed back. Something will have to be done about that, but there were no other problems in our short session. I’d brought some Winchester hardball along in case the Ingram was finicky, but never opened the box. Altogether we fired about 200 reloads in an hour. Some were fired through the Reising but most were fired in the Ingram.

More shooting of the Ingram showed it to work as well with light Bullseye loads with lead 230 grain round nose bullets, as with hardball equivalent loads with 230 grain FMJs. The problem with the last round in the magazine still occurred but seemed to happen less often than the first time I shot the gun. Several people left the range grinning, wanting more time on the Ingram. A friend who had been at the session called me a few days later. During the conversation he said he was tumbling a bunch of 45 brass which were going to be loaded and reserved for use in my subguns, particularly the Model 6. I need more friends like that.

The sights on the Ingram impressed me. Several subguns I’ve fired seemed to have the sights stuck on as an afterthought. A STEn I saw a couple of years ago had no front sight. When I drew that to the attention of the guy running the rental operation, he said, “Oh yeah, it fell off. We’ll have to put it back on.”

That kind of casual attitude is not encouraged by the Ingram’s sights. The rear sight is a peep, adjustable for windage with reference marks on the sight base. It is protected by two large ears which somewhat resemble those on the Swedish K. The front sight is also sturdy and has protective wings on either side. I thought the sights on the Model 6 were quite usable. Nelson’s book says they are set for 100 yards and I don’t anticipate shooting any subgun much farther than that. One hundred yards and beyond is Garand or M1A territory.

The World’s Submachine Guns gives the Ingram’s particulars as: Blowback operation, selective fire, cyclic rate 600 rpm Made in 9mm, .45 ACP and .38 Super Length without bayonet 30 inches, with bayonet 37 inches Nine inch round barrel Unloaded weight 7.25 pounds, loaded weight 9 pounds Magazine capacity 30 rounds. Box magazine made of seamless steel tubing. Six lands and grooves with a right hand twist.

The book doesn’t mention it but the gun has a two-piece wooden stock and sling swivels. I like wooden stocks and the Ingram’s fits me quite well.

I took the Ingram to the range and fired it semi-auto from the bench with reloads using Bullseye, Unique and Clays powders and 230 grain FMJ bullets. The loads were made using Winchester Large Pistol Primers and Remington-Peters nickel-plated cases. The Ingram seemed to like 4.3 grains of Bullseye. At 25 yards I shot four slugs into two inches and then threw a flier that stretched the group to three and a half inches. At 50 yards I got three shots into two inches on the edge of the target. The other two of the five were off in the much-ventilated back board and lost. The Unique load worked better than the Clays load but threw more and wider fliers than the Bullseye rounds. The Clays load I used threw seven-inch groups at 25 yards, OK for short range blasting but not for much else. The M6 trigger made it easy to shoot single shots. I never felt I might slip over and fire two or three instead of one.

Gordon B. Ingram developed several other subguns before the most famous of his inventions, the MAC 10. The Model 7, which fired from a close bolt and was chambered for the .38 Super, looked alot like the Model 6, at least in pictures. The Model 8, which was produced in Thailand, was an update of the Model 6. The Model 9 featured a folding wire stock and was shorter, lighter and chambered only for the 9mm Parabellum. The MAC 10 took the same trends to what I think is an extreme. Along with the subguns mentioned earlier I’ve also shot a suppressed MAC 10. Every other subgun I’ve fired felt better, and I shot better with them.

Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of work is being done to MACs and the various MAC clones. There have been several articles in Small Arms Review detailing how to re-stock and re-sight these guns, and how to slow them down so they are of more use in competition shooting. Every issue of Shotgun News had ads for new stocks, handguards and barrels. Match photos show competitors using MACs tricked out with these, and other accessories. When I see these revamped guns, I can’t help but think that all the ad-ons merely bring these guns somewhere near the weight, length and utility of an original Model. 6.

By Lee Arten

Seven of us were shooting on an outdoor range in Upper Michigan in early spring 2000. There were about three inches of snow on the ground, but there was one bare place to stand, and it had been too long since we got together and much too long since we’d shot outside.

Four of the group were students, two from high school and two from the local university. I was one of three older guys, the father of one of the high schoolers and owner of the three submachine guns, a Reising, an Ingram Model 6, and a Madsen M50 we were there to shoot. The other two “old guys,” Bob and Mike, were shooting buddies. (Sometimes I call them, “The usual suspects.”) They’d already shot the Reising and Mike had also tried the Ingram Model 6. Neither of the collegians had shot full auto before; it was also the first time for Bob’s son, Sam.

I noticed something after each of the newbies had fired their first magazine. After I stepped up and took the gun back, and as I stripped the empty magazine and checked it, they turned around and grinned a huge grin at everyone. I saw the same grin appear again and again that afternoon. Since I was shooting my Madsen M50 for the first time that day, I know that grin appeared on my face periodically too. (I found the M50 reliable, controllable, and slightly reminiscent of the M3, for which I have a fondness. Madsen magazines were remarkably cheap for a while, and before the supply thinned out I had 40 of them.)

Thinking back on this later, I started to call that enthusiastic smile, “The 30 round grin.” The Reising mag only holds 20, the Madsen mag holds 32, and the lone Ingram mag holds 30, so it almost averages out. (If someone in our group had a belt fed I suppose I’d be calling it the 100 round grin.)

That grin is one of the rewards of showing new people the front porch of the NFA world. (One of the others is a lot of empty brass to reload.) I haven’t had my Curio and Relics License and my subguns very long, so I’m still only on the porch myself. I have made myself comfortable there, however. Since my first slow steps onto it, I’ve pulled up a nice, solid rocker, found some back issues of Small Arms Review to read, and a table to hold a cold mug of something to drink. The guys I introduced to the Madsen, the Model 6 and the Reising at the range that day in the spring had really only made it to the front steps. However, most of them seem to have decided almost instantly to come onto the porch to look for a chair, at least.

It’s been a few months since I introduced any new people to NFA through my subguns but next month I’ll get another chance. My parents are having their 50th Wedding Anniversary and my siblings and other relatives are flying in from several points of the compass. The same weekend a friend from years ago, a staunch conservative and new NRA member, is coming back to the area from Virginia for a few days. If I can work it out, both my brothers and my old friend will be down at the range with a subgun and a fully loaded magazine as soon as possible after arrival. I can’t wait to see the three of them break out into “30 round grins”.

That antiquated public scold, Andy Rooney, who worked for the service newspaper Stars and Stripes during Work War II, hated Patton. That ought to be enough for me to appreciate the general called “Old Blood and Guts.” Bill Mauldin, the Stars and Stripes cartoonist made famous by his drawings of scruffy World War II soldiers, also had problems with Patton. Rooney has been a waste of airtime and newsprint for years, but I appreciate Mauldin’s World War II cartoons. That leaves me with a contradiction, when considering Patton, this is not unusual.

Patton was famous for the belligerent speeches he made to his troops and his aggressive, driving style in combat. He was infamous for slapping two shell-shocked soldiers in Sicily and having to make a public apology to his army for the incidents. At the same time, biographer D’Este shows that Patton was sentimental, usually polite to women and personally and publicly religious. He was both different and more complex than the man shown in the film Patton with George C. Scott. Patton did say, “The object of war is not to die for our country. It is to make the other poor dumb bastard die for his,” but there was a lot more to his before-battle exhortations.

In Patton A Genius for War, D’Este reveals that Patton was dyslexic. The academic difficulty Patton had because of this at both Virginia Military Institute and West Point contributed to feelings of inferiority and wide mood swings. While in school Patton could be devastated by a bad grade, and his spelling fluctuated as wildly as his moods. Samples of his personal correspondence showed that George Smith Patton was not among those boring souls who can only spell a word one way.

Despite dyslexia, Patton was able to produce clear and precise reports and battle plans. He also seemed, D/Este says, to have an instinctive grasp of where battles would develop and be decided. He was usually one of the best at reacting to conditions and carrying out plans with the maximum force and speed. D’Este also shows that Patton was one of the first American generals to appreciate what a potent force armor and air power could be when working together. On his smashing attacks in France, Patton used air power both to prepare the way for his Third Army and to protect his flanks.

Patton began working with tanks in World War I, when he ran the first U.S. Army tank school in France. Before and after that, he was a cavalryman who designed a new saber and studied famous cavalry campaigns including those of Confederate generals who gave the Union so much trouble in the Civil War. Patton saw his first action as a cavalryman in the Punitive Expedition into Mexico in 1916. During this attempt to punish Pancho Villa, who had invaded the U.S. and attacked Columbus, New Mexico, Patton led the first motorized assault on an enemy position ever made by the U.S. Army. That assault was made with Dodge Touring Cars, not tanks, but Patton did take tanks into combat in World War I, and was wounded after four days of combat.

In the years between the wars, he played polo, wrote papers on tank tactics and waited for the next war. During that time, he and another junior officer, Dwight Eisenhower, were stationed together at Camp Meade, Maryland. While there, D’Este says, “By themselves they stripped a tank down to its last nut and bolt and managed to put it back together-and make it run.” They also did some machinegun shooting.

“Patton was test-firing a .30 caliber machinegun while Eisenhower observed the trajectory of the bullets through field glasses. Without warning, the weapon “cooked” and began spewing bullets everywhere. The two future generals raced off in panic but returned to disable the gun with sheepish expressions on their faces.”

There were subjects on which Patton deserved to be ignored. However, if he had been listened to about the desirability of capturing Berlin and Prague instead of letting them be taken by the Soviet Army, and if his predictions of future bad behavior by Stalin had been believed, the postwar years might have been much different.

This book is well written and well researched. The author, Carlo D’Este, is a retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel and a military historian. He is the author of four other books on World War II: Decision in Normandy, Bitter Victory: The Battle For Sicily, 1943, World War II in the Mediterranean and Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle For Rome.

Ruger & His Guns
By R.L. Wilson
Published by Simon & Schuster
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
ISBN #0-684-80367-4
Price $65.00 plus s&h
Reviewed by Christopher Trumble

Sturm, Ruger and Company Incorporated has been producing quality firearms since it first started producing its .22 rimfire caliber semi-automatic pistol, that just about everyone is familiar with firearms either owns, owned or wished they owned. There have been numerous books written chronicling the history and development of American gun manufacturing companies such as Smith and Wesson and Colt. The Sturm, Ruger company has not been paid much attention to by authors until this book. I am pleased that this book was written because the Sturm, Ruger company has been a very active participant in the development of quality firearms and the promotion of safe and responsible firearms use.

The first chapter of this book is an extremely interesting section on the development of the company leader, William Ruger. Without him there would be no development of the company, and I feel it is always helpful in understanding a firearm to understand both the person who designed it and the purpose of the design. The photographs through this chapter and all the chapters are excellent quality and a fascinating trip into the near past.

The following chapters, two thru ten chronologically follow the development of the various firearm models. Interspersed through each chapter is interesting information about each firearm including great photographs and schematic diagrams. Included are variations to each model, numbers produced and initial suggested sales prices. Also, there are numerous annual reports that were produced by the company outlining its financial achievements.

Chapter eleven gives insight as to the company’s future path and philosophy of continuing to produce excellent quality firearms in a socially responsible manner. There is also an excellent photograph of the very well designed MP9 submachine gun along with the schematic drawing for same.

The final chapter contains more exquisite photographs of what can only be described as works of art that happen to be firearms. The final chapter of the book is a nice summation of the Ruger empire reflecting on the past success, but also making it obvious that this is not the final chapter to this company’s history.

If you are interested in determining the date of manufacture of a firearm in your collection, interested in Ruger firsts or wanting to know if the manufacturing markings on your firearm are authentic, then the appendixes are for you.

This book does not have detailed information on the disassembly of firearms. Nor does it have extensive explanations as to the inner operation of firearms. This book was not written for those purposes and if that is what you are looking for then avoid this book. If you are looking for excellent information on the history and development of the Ruger company and its products than this is the book for you. I feel this book is worth much more than the asking price and makes a welcome addition to my library.

Military Book Clubs Classic Weapons Series’: The Thompson Submachine Gun
By Chris Ellis
The Browning M2
Heavy Machine Gun
by Terry J. Gander
Review by Lee Arten

I’ve been a member of The Military Book Club three times. I’m not so devoted to military history that I’ve stayed for years, but I have found club selections useful at times. I’ve bought several books on sniping from the club’s list, some of which were not available elsewhere.

The Thompson Submachine Gun is 64 pages long with black and white photographs, many of which I’d never seen before. Besides the photos, the book covered the history of the submachine gun in general, and the Thompson in particular. Chapters I found most interesting were “The Thompson SMG in Production,” which had information on a version almost produced by BSA, and “The Tommy Gun in Service,” with pictures of Thompsons in all the theaters of operation in World War II, and “Rivals and Successors,” which covered guns that were supposed to replace the Thompson and one that eventually did.

The Thompson Submachine Gun was originally printed in the United Kingdom. The edition I have was produced in 1998 for the Military Book Club. It is not the most comprehensive book on the Thompson by any means, but it does contain some interesting information.

The Browning M2 Heavy Machine Gun follows the same basic format. It was first published in England in 1999, and the book club edition came out here the same year. It is 64 pages long and filled with black and white photographs. Beginning with John Moses Browning’s first machinegun experiments, it goes on through the 1895 Potato Digger, the Model 1917 and 1919, and then goes to the .50 in Chapter 2, “The M2.”

That chapter includes sections on US Navy M2s, M2HB Mountings, and tank and aircraft guns. Other chapters cover new developments, attempted replacements for the M2, new uses for the gun, and ammunition and production data. The photographs in this book are varied, showing the M2 and variants in use in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and during various training sessions before and during the cold war. One shot of particular interest shows two captured M2HBs used by the Germans in an antiaircraft mount.

I found these books to be good additions to my MG library. The Military Book Club can be reached at 6550 East 30th Street, P.O. Box 6357, Indianapolis, IN 46206-6357 or on the web at www.MilitaryBookClub.com. (Tell them you saw the review in SAR)