Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Gift 2: Assault Man and IJA NCO




    The final Marine is an assault man armed with the Winchester M12 trench shotgun in 12 gauge.  These shotguns were used extensively throughout the Pacific War to help clear out enemy bunkers and trench lines.  The second man in a flame thrower team was usually armed as such.  His shotgun shells are all metal, as was common during the time period.  He wears the P42 camouflage utility uniform, green side out with a forage cap.  


    On his olive drab webbing he has an army style canteen pouch, k-bar, and an M1936 “musette bag”.  In his right hand is a Mk. II fragmentation hand grenade, commonly known as a “pineapple” grenade.  The base of the miniature is sand from Okinawa’s Blue 2 Beach, where 1st Battalion 7th Marines came ashore.  Blue 2 is the main Tori Station beach, in line with the circular reef, and was collected in March 2016.









    The final Japanese soldier is a non-commissioned officer armed with a Type 100/44 submachine-gun.  The machine-gun fires an 8x22mm Nabu cartridge.  The blowback operated submachine-gun is fed through a 30 round detachable curved box magazine on the left side of the weapon and is capable of firing 800 rounds per minute at 1,100 feet per second.  With an effective range of 150 meters the weapon weighs 7.5lbs empty and 9.7lbs loaded.


    Attached to his leather webbing in the rear are his first aid kit, bread bag, and Imperial Japanese Army style canteen.  On his right side are the ammunition pouches for his weapon.  The miniature is based on sand from Okinawa’s Red 3 beach, where 1st Battalion 4th Marines came ashore on 1 April 1945.  Red 3 is just north of Blue 1 and runs north along Tori Station beach until hitting the coral wall at Red 2; the sand was collected in March 2016.

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