Reising Guns, Anti-Tank Rifles, and Specialist Grades
Battalion: An Organizational Study of United States Infantry
The estate of the late John Sayen has graciously allowed the Tactical Notebook to serialize his study of the organizational evolution of American infantry battalions. The author’s preface, as well as some previously posted parts of this book, may be found below, in the section marked “For Further Reading.”
On 10 January of 1942, Headquarters, Marine Corps, approved a number of changes to the D-series tables of organization adopted on 28 March 1942. One of these called for the replacement of most pistols, to include those carried by lieutenants and captains, with M1 carbines. However, as sufficient numbers of carbines did not emerge from the factories until 1943, the Marine Corps employed the Reising submachine gun as a substitute for the new self-defense weapon.
Just how many Reisings found homes in units of the Fleet Marine Force remains an open question. Group photographs of Marines serving in the communications platoons of infantry battalions and regiments show many members of those units carrying Reising guns. Documents pertaining to the light machine gun and mortar platoons of the weapons companies of infantry battalions indicate that the issue of Reisings to such units had been ordered in March of 1942.
Though cheaper, lighter, and easier to make than the Thompson submachine gun that American Marines had carried since the 1920s, the Reising performed poorly in the fight for Guadalcanal. In particular, it proved hard to keep clean, prone to jamming, and, worst of all, susceptible to misfires. Thus, as soon as sufficient numbers of M1 carbines became available, the Reisings returned to the United States, where they spent the rest of the war in the hands of Marines standing guard at various posts and stations.
The modifications of 1 January 1942 also called for the issue of three .60-caliber anti-tank rifles to the headquarters of each rifle company. Operated by armorers, barbers, carpenters, clerks, cobblers, and cooks, these supplemented the 37mm anti-tank guns regimental weapons companies and the .50-caliber machine guns of anti-aircraft/anti-tank platoons of battalion weapons companies. However, as was the case with the 20mm dual purpose gun, the relevant authorities declined to put this weapon into production. Thus, by 1 July of 1942, when Headquarters Marine Corps gave its blessing to the third revision of the D-series establishments, the .60 caliber anti-tank rifle had been banished to the realm of particularly challenging pub quizzes.
The edition of the D-series establishments of 1 January 1942 changed the ranks worn by many enlisted Marines. So that men with technical skills, such as armorers, carpenters, and draftsmen, might draw extra pay, this measure introduced a system of specialist designations comparable to the technician pay grades recently adopted by the US Army. Within a few months, however, this reform had gone the way of the .60-caliber anti-tank rifle . (The third revision of the D-series tables solved the problem of appropriate compensation by authorizing the promotion of specialists to the rank of corporal.)
Sources: Marine Corps Tables of Organization D-4 “Headquarters Company, Infantry Battalion, Infantry Regiment, editions of 28 March 1941, 10 January 1942, and 1 July 1942.
For Further Reading:
