I am doing research about the Marine Raiders during WWII and would like to find out if the M50 Reising was used by 2nd Bn during the Makin Island raid. If you have any information, I sure would appreciate it.
Gary A. Keith
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According to my father, Nelson Wilcox, the M50 was to big a gun to use on the Makin Island Raid. He also said that he carried a sub-Thompson and two 45 handguns on that Raid.
He said they used a M1 on the Saipan Raid. If it helps any.
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The Reisling sub machine gun was not used by the Marine Raiders at all, because it was beleived to be greatly inferior to the Thompson, which they had accces to. Even thought the riesling was invented by a Marine it was still considered to be second best to the Thompson. Raiders had priority on weaponry and could get all the Thompsons they wanted so, so why take second best?
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The Reising was used by the Raiders. My uncle, Lon. M. Putnam, was on the Makin Raid and was wounded on Guadalcanal. He was issued and did use a Reising. I now have the field manual for it. However, I agree that the Thompson eventually predominated. I do recall him mentioning that the Reising had some service problems. Anyway, I just wanted to set the record straight.
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