Question on WW2 & Korean War weapons issue...

[Straight Shooter]

After seeing & looking at so many photos of our heroes on D-Day, I got to wondering about this.
With all the many, many different weapons issued in WW2 & the same ones in Korea...how was it determined who got what?
In one photo I saw on D-Day..one of the landing craft's occupants all had M1 carbines. Then I see another that had Garands ,carbines, Thompsons, ect.
So how was it decided who got a Garand, who got an carbine, who got a Thompson or BAR, ect. ect.
I know Tankers carried sub machine guns, but Im talking about infantry.
If a soldier got issued a weapon he didnt like and wanted another- could they just swap? Example, I would not have wanted an M1 carbine, so if I wanted a Garand or other weapon, could me an another Joe just swap out?

[chuckman]

As I understand, then (as is now) you had a TO&E weapon, and sometimes your 'line' on the chart gave you a couple options based on MOS. So far as I know you are not supposed to swap, which is not to say it does not or has not happened.

[crusader377]

Like today, Army units in WW2 had a T.O.E. however, soldiers then as now adjusted their equipment based on the mission. They had more flexibility back then because it was a citizen soldier army and it was easier for soldiers to switch out weapons plus casualities meant that there were more spare weapons laying around. For example, in Europe infantrymen would generally carry the M1 Garand whereas the M1 carbine was more common in the Pacific even though probably the bulk of the infantry still carried the M1 Garand. With the M1 carbine, alot of specialist personal would carry the lighter carbine such as RTOs, Forward Observers, Engineers, etc...

With weapons like the B.A.R. which was normally issued one per squad, it was not uncommon for infantry units to pick up a second B.A.R. especially to counter the heavier MG42 fielded by the Germans.

[Hank6046]

www.battleorder.org/us-army-rifle-co-1945

[chadbag]

I've generally seen that the officers, HQ, support staff had the carbine and the riflemen the Garand. The link given kind of confirms that, though some support staff on heavy weapons only have the 1911. I guess even a carbine was too big and bulky for guys dealing with big and bulky support weapons. I notice the TOE given doesn't have any Thompsons in the rifle company. Maybe, by this time, they were specialized with specific groups. This is also for 1945-1948. The 1944-1945 version ( https://www.battleorder.org/post/usa-rifleco-1944 ) does show some Thompsons in the weapons pool, not allocated to any specific person.

Good question!

[chuckman]

www.battleorder.org/us-army-rifle-co-1945

That was very cool, thanks for sharing.

Edited to add, I was playing around on that site and got a kick out the WW2 Marine Corps rifle company: barber, carpenter, cobbler, and 2 field musicians.

[Red*Lion]

Tankers had grease guns and 1911's. I actually carried a Remington Rand 1911 during Desert Storm. That 1911 was a pos. Shot out bigly. M1A1 tanker with 4/32 Armor Regiment, 3rd AD.

[ABNAK]

In Korea, once the war had stabilized into trench-type warfare (i.e. the MLR's, or Main Line of Resistance) and nightly patrols went out into "no-man's land", most guys swapped weapons for the patrol so they could have M2 Carbines. They'd let some dude hold onto their Garand and use that guy's M2 so they had a lightweight full-auto weapon out there. When they got back they swapped to their original weapon.