Why would the U.S destroy captured American weapons?

Posted by CT2145Trapper@reddit | ForgottenWeapons | View on Reddit | 29 comments

I recently bought a set of WWII USMC Photos from the Guam campaign. One of these images was of a group of marines walking past a pile of weapons presumably captured from the Japanese and being collected for destruction.

The majority of the pile seems to be U.S weapons including at least 1 M1919, and multiple M1 Garands and M1 Carbines, which made me wonder why they wouldn’t be re-issued to troops or salvaged for spare parts.

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Key-Illustrator-5562@reddit

I believe that is a battlefield pickup location in the pacific during WW2. The S4/G4 elements would aggregate recovered weapons after a battle from the fallen for intelligence purposes, refurbishment and reissue, or disposal. Note a number of Japanese firearms in the pile (arisakas, type 82 HMG, "knee motrar")

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CT2145Trapper@reddit (OP)

that makes sense. but it’s a bit odd to me that the mostly seem like American weapons.

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Raaka-Kake@reddit

How many Americans you feel died in there?

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CT2145Trapper@reddit (OP)

1,760 Soldiers KIA

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the_direful_spring@reddit

I mean, more than enough to make that pile?

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Zerskader@reddit

They could be from fatalities suffered in field. Pacific was a rough theater.

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fusillade762@reddit

They probably ordered Marines to pick up all the weapons, friend and foe, put them in this pile, then they would get sorted. They are probably the rifles of fallen or injured Marines who lost their weapons on the battlefield.

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GunFunZS@reddit

My great uncle was hired to unpack new flight jackets and burn them. They said if he kept one he would be charged with theft. My grampa talked about opening crates of jeeps and rolling them off of carrier decks into the ocean.

War is waste and the military industrial complex rent seeking us real.

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MlackBesa@reddit

If the guns have left your control you can’t trust them anymore. Who knows how they’ve been maintained? Repaired? What if the bolts have been swapped and headspace is all messed up? Rebarreled to a different caliber? Damaged? You then have to decide if it’s worth your time to go examine and inspect all those weapons before re-issueing them. You need a pretty thorough technician and tools to do this, which probably weren’t available immediately

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ZAM1984@reddit

It cost more to ship back than to produce new ones

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Pratt_@reddit

I don't see anything here indicating any of those weapons is going to be sent for destruction.

Collecting weapons on the battlefield, either yours the the enemy's is completely normal.

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TylerDurdenJunior@reddit

Money.

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Kegalodon@reddit

Those arms are probably there after being picked up on a battlefield, they’ll sort out the ones that are serviceable and send the broke stuff to be refreshed, there’s a million ways those guns could be broken, they’d rather issue out known good stuff than the m1 that was pulled off a dead marine. His rifle could’ve been the reason he was dead.

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om_svd7@reddit

Simple why would they give soldiers used worn out rifle when they already where given new semi-new ones because in ww2 the us was pumping out rifles like hell

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quickscopemcjerkoff@reddit

Unless a gun was heavily corroded or damaged from something they wouldn’t be just worn out. It takes thousands of rounds to wear out a barrel. These are just put into a preliminary pile near the front to be sorted later.

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DeezNutz4U2C@reddit

Cool pic. Do you have pics of any Saipan campaigns?

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CT2145Trapper@reddit (OP)

I could’ve. the antique store had 4 USMC photo packs, Set 7 (The one I bought) Tinian (I believe set 10) and 2 Saipan packs (10 and 11 i believe). I would’ve bought them all but that was way over my budget

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Taolan13@reddit

Because they are no longer in serviceable condition and the armorers evaluated that they are not cost effective to repair.

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Batmack8989@reddit

Might be out of concern about them being sabotaged in some way

But I feel like chances were more clerical, so to speak, like not being worth the hassle of organizing a procedure, inspecting, repairing and redistributing those weapons considering chances are they already had more weapons than people able to use them.

Perfectly functional stuff is often thrown away just because they aren't needed and it is less of an issue than moving them around. It is simply somewhat more convenient.

I think there was a Royal Navy FAA pilot who witnessed, relatively late in the war, fairly new F4U-1D Corsair fighters being thrown overboard while they (the British) were flying the same or earlier models because the US units were converting to the newer F4U-4 models

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I_2_Cast_Lead_45acp@reddit

Cheaper to push them for a deep sleep with Davy Jones than the recycling value for scrap.

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Yummy_Crayons91@reddit

Especially if carrier storage space is needed during high tempo operations. That Carrier is needed now and likely can't go to the nearest port to re-arm taking it out of action for weeks at a time.

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Zerskader@reddit

I wouldn't presume them to be destroyed unless ot specifically mentions it. These are most likely being collected for clerical reasons and either being salvaged or destroyed afterwards.

While there are American weapons on the pile, you wouldn't immediately reissue them to Marines who already have firearms. They have to be checked for sabotage, general safety, and accounted for (while the US didn't necessarily attach a serial number to a unit, each unit was given an "official" procurement) when comparing the amount retrieved to the amount lost by fatalities.

The last thing the Marines are doing is throwing away perfectly good weapons if they are in a position to recover them.

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pinesolthrowaway@reddit

This^

I’d guess any US rifles would be waiting for an armorer to go through them first before any decision is made about their status. They might be able to be re-issued as is, they might need refurbishing, they might be stripped for parts, or they could be so far gone they get scrapped

Doubtful they’d just destroy them without authorization from an armorer

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DemonPeanut4@reddit

Its just a weapons collection point. They'd eventually be sent to a weapons reclamation point behind the lines and cleaned and shipped back to the US. There are film reels you can find of this process.

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Navy87Guy@reddit

You’re “presuming” a lot…what makes you think they were captured? And what indicates they were going to be destroyed?

There were a lot of dead and wounded Americans on Iwo….they would have left a lot of weapons on the battlefield. 🤷🏼‍♂️

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Ponklemoose@reddit

I imagine that the US shipped at least as many rifles as riflemen, plus they’d have the rifles of men who were made combat ineffective in places that were held, so they’d have plenty of rifles (and other weapons).

It also seems likely that the US weapons in the pile have been damaged and per my first paragraph not worth fixing or parting out.

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