Probably silly question: were shotguns ever used as inf. weapons in WW2?

[PacifistButLikeWarGames]

just out of interest.

[Bullethead]

I have a book called "Turnip Greens and Sergeant Stripes", by an Alabama hillbilly named Grimes. He was a grunt Lt. on New Guinea. At some point, his guys took some sort of police station in a village, in which they found several cases of pump shotguns and beaucoup 00 buck. They quickly put these to good use.

But I don't know if shotguns were ever issued in WW2. It would be strange if they weren't, because they were in WW1, VN, and the Gulf.

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-Bullethead

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[Abbott]

A full auto 12.ga with a 20 round drum magazine was also used in the Korean conflict.

[David Aitken]

One of the American chaps in The Thin Red Line uses a shotgun (and that's a Hollywood movie, so it must be right). I used to think pump-action shotguns were a relatively new invention, but apparently not.

You'll find pretty much any kind of weapon being used in war, especially by special forces.

David

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They lost all of their equipment and had to swim in under machine gun fire. As they struggled in the water, Gardner heard somebody say, "Perhaps we're intruding, this seems to be a private beach."

[jdl]

I thought they were not allowed by the Geneva convention. They were used in WWI and Vietnam. We had a couple of girls training with us when I qualified on the shotgun in 71' and when they shot from the kneeling position the training seargent put his boot on the back of the girls shoulders so the kick would'nt knock them down. I would have liked to have seen one of those shotguns with a bayonet attached as you could attach one. Once I got out of AIT we never took our shotguns out of the armory once in the two years I was in the Army. I never saw the grease guns go out either.

[GriffinCheng+]

According to the book "U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War II" by Bruce N. Canfield, US soliders were issued with combat shotguns, e.g. Winchester Model 97, Model 12, Remington Model 11 and Model 31. According to the book (page 126), the production figures for 1943 was 2,607 riot guns, 60,896 for trench guns and 51,944 traning guns. They were used in both Pacific Threatre as well as as in the Western Front.

Again according to the book, actually in WW1, German at that time reacted strongly against the use of this weapon, any american captured with such a weapon or even the ammunition were threatened to be executed for they claimed the user of such weapon violates the international rule of combat.

Hope it helps.

Griffin.

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"+" is just the beginning. Expect to see "GriffinCheng76", "GriffinCheng(105)" or "GriffinChengA3E8" more should Forum problems occur again

[Diceman]

In WWI American G.I.s would point those scatter guns around the corner of a trench and let loose without ever being exposed to fire. It was a very effective weapon for the trenches.

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Pair-O-Dice

"Once a Diceman, Always a Diceman."

[This message has been edited by Diceman (edited 09-16-2000).]

[virtualfreak]

Based on books i have read I know that the US army gave alot of pump action shotguns to the resistance movements in Europe.AS for the US and british armys using shotguns I think they probally did. The US army has been using shotguns in war since the revolutionary war so i dont see why they wouldent use shotguns in ww2.

[Guest Mr. Johnson-<THC>-]

Americans love their Shotguns and have been using in combat since the French-Indian war.

[Bullethead]

David Aitken said:

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I used to think pump-action shotguns were a relatively new invention, but apparently not.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

They go back at least as far as centerfire cartridges, if not before. The earliest pump I can think of off-hand was the Winchester (18)97. This one was issued to troops in WW1 as an early analog to the SMG. It had the cool feature that if you kept the trigger pulled while working the action, it would fire every time you pushed the pump forward. It differed from the civvie version in having the short, riotgun barrel with a perforated handguard, plus a bayonet lug. Very nice weapon

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-Bullethead

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[Jarhead]

The United States Marine Corps used/Issued 12Ga pump action shot guns to Infantry units in the Pacific war. These were used for patrolling and night actions as the fighting often was close at hand. I believe the manufacturer was Ithaca.

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Semper Fi.

[Guest TomServo]

Like GriffinCheng+ i own that Infantry weapons of ww2 book which shows many shotguns.

I once was making a add-on for a ww2 game and one of the weapons we were adding was a shotgun, i had someone tell me that there were no shotguns in ww2. pfft.