WW2 Russian with Tommy Gun

I have a Lend Lease 28 that I acquired a couple years back from C.S. Military, I had my choice from an almost full, Russian marked wooden crate. I tried to buy the crate a couple of weeks later, but it had already been sold....Wish I had taken a few pics at least, as there's really no identifiable distinguishing markings to show that it was part of the Russian Lend Lease Program. I also had a really cool pic that I found on line, of some Russian sailors all armed with their new 28's , I tried to find it again...no Luck in cyberland.
 
I understand it can be done by ground troop to shoot down a plane, but I guess .303 would be better suited than .45acp? I mean, I wouldn't shoot down a seagull with this. Ok, maybe, but you get the point.

Anyways, it was only a bad jokes, sorry!
 
fiddler said:
I believe the Red Baron was shot down by ground troops in WW1.
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Actually it's pretty much accepted that Arthur Royal Brown, a Canadian fighter pilot in the RNAS shot down Richthofen(except by the Australians). Brown was hounded by the press over the matter and in the years after the war refused any comment on the matter. His flying log for the day had a brief entry something like he engaged a red triplane which was after Wop May, a Canadian rookie pilot and the triplane spun away. He termed the exchange indecisive. However the RFC credited him with a victory and awarded him a bar to his DSO.
His private comments on viewing Richthofen's body the following day however are telling. He remarked, " There was a lump in my throat. Had he been my dearest friend, I could not have felt greater sorrow."
Ground fire accounted for the majority of Allied air losses in the last two years of WW2.
 
Some years ago I read a great book about an American who came up here at the beginning of WW2 and joined the Seaforth Highlanders ( I believe...), became a Bren gunner.

Anyways... he shot down a Stuka with his Bren while the krauts were shooting up an airfield in England ... and I think he shot down a SECOND Stuka a bit later.

Anyways... the Yanks are looking to re-recruit Americans from the ABC forces back into American uniform.

Story is getting too long, sooooo...... long stroy short, he finally joines USAAF flying P47 Jugs and becomes an Ace by the end of the war... but his first 2 kills were as a Canadian Infantryman with a frigging 303 caliber, shoulder fired weapon. Not too shabby!

Dude goes on to serve in Korea and Vietnam, too... think he retired as a General.

Wish I remembered his name. Kraft disease.
 
Regardless of how he died, it is fortunate for us that he did so. Had he lived there is a good chance that he would have headed the Luftwaffe and not that fat clown Goering.
 
I gotta ask this...what makes the photo of Russian origin? The guy firing the M28 Thompson appears to be wearing the U.S. M1938 tankers helmet. All the Light Machine guns on the tanks are M1917 30 Cal. and the tanks do not appear to be Russian, they look like the U.S. M3. The only thing that would appear to be Russian are the boots the Thompson Shooter is wearing, and possible the coveralls...though the U.S. also had a specific tanker suit as well.
 
The vehicle actually appears to be the earlier M2A4. Note the different gun mantlet from the M3,also the sponson mounted MG. Only 365 on these were built ending in March 1941. These were primarily used for training, altho a few were used in the early stages of the war. Tough to say just what really happened with lend lease. Those tunics and boots do look kind of Russky.
 
Chabz2001 said:
I understand it can be done by ground troop to shoot down a plane, but I guess .303 would be better suited than .45acp? I mean, I wouldn't shoot down a seagull with this. Ok, maybe, but you get the point.

Anyways, it was only a bad jokes, sorry!
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A 40mm Bofors gun is better than anything hand-held, but a Thompson is better than nothing if it's all you've got.
 
I like the picture of the German Solder with a PPsh :D

Red-October-04.jpg
 
Alonzo said:
I gotta ask this...what makes the photo of Russian origin? The guy firing the M28 Thompson appears to be wearing the U.S. M1938 tankers helmet. All the Light Machine guns on the tanks are M1917 30 Cal. and the tanks do not appear to be Russian, they look like the U.S. M3. The only thing that would appear to be Russian are the boots the Thompson Shooter is wearing, and possible the coveralls...though the U.S. also had a specific tanker suit as well.
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The tanks supplied came with all the same E.I.S. as when issued to other allied units. Right down to the helmets and radios. I have a book stashed somewhere by a Russian tanker who commanded Shermans. When they received them all the US weapons and gear where there as well, stored on board. The uniforms in the picture look Russian to me, as do the tactical markings on the tank in the background.

Lend lease tanks & aircraft:


http://ww2total.com/WW2/History/Production/Russia/Lend-Lease.htm
 
eos said:
The tanks supplied came with all the same E.I.S. as when issued to other allied units. Right down to the helmets and radios. I have a book stashed somewhere by a Russian tanker who commanded Shermans. When they received them all the US weapons and gear where there as well, stored on board. The uniforms in the picture look Russian to me, as do the tactical markings on the tank in the background.

Lend lease tanks & aircraft:


http://ww2total.com/WW2/History/Production/Russia/Lend-Lease.htm
Click to expand...

That explains the guns and the Tanker Helmet as well.
 
The US practice of issuing armored vehicles with complete checklist/EIS, incl small arms, continued during the Korean War when we got M4A3E8 tanks, halftracks and M20 armoured cars thru the US pipeline. By that time the Thompson was out of US service, so the vehicles came with M3 "Greaseguns" instead. The Thompsons that were used in Korea came from the Chinese who got them from the collapse of the Nationalist Chinese army which had been supplied with them in large numbers.

Canada actually shipped the Russians a quantity of Valentine tanks made at the CPR Angus works during WW2. We also supplied them with a lot of the No19 radio sets which had data plates attached in Russian. We used the 19 sets for some time in the "National Survival" gear which was intended for re-entry operations following a nuclear strike. The Canadian maple leaf lend lease stickers with "Canada" in English, Chinese and Russian lettering was used extensively. You saw them on BRENs, Inglis Brownings, and a hockey sock of other war goods.
 
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