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Share Your USMC Depot-Made Field Gear


Jake the Collector
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Yes, very nice photos! So is the side seam, black folded tip M-1905 scabbard cover correct for 1937? The only info I have just states that they were made "circa 1940". I guess that leaves them a bit of wiggle room but I'd like to have a better idea of when they were actually made. Thanks for those excellent photos.

 

Steve

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TheSandpebbles

Hey Sandpebbles,

 

May I ask where you got these photos? They are excellent.

 

Thanks Jake! I actually put those photos together myself. It's all original equipment, except the service shoes.

 

 

 

Yes, very nice photos! So is the side seam, black folded tip M-1905 scabbard cover correct for 1937? The only info I have just states that they were made "circa 1940". I guess that leaves them a bit of wiggle room but I'd like to have a better idea of when they were actually made. Thanks for those excellent photos.

 

Steve

 

Thanks GWS! I'm not sure if you saw my earlier reply to you, but I posted some pictures of China Marines in 1937 with what appear to be seamed scabbard covers. Take a look and tell me what you think...

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Wow. Very impressive. Is the first aid pouch original? I believe you need to look into the mess kit, though. Isn't that a 1942 pattern? Premature for 1937. You'd most likely have the M1910 pattern.

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Thank you very much for sharing that information Jake! Somebody was telling me that the Depot didn't produce meat cans between 1930-1940/41 but if their die press was worn out in 1940, it would suggest that they were making them in the late 1930s, at least!

 

 

 

From what I have read, these Marines Corps Variant slings can be seen in the interwar years through the early 1940s. These slings are made of thicker harness leather in a darker shade, are totally unmarked, have a metal staple on each keeper, and have only four sets of adjustment holes on the shorter strap (only two sets visible when slung). It has been suggested that these slings were made on the West Coast by a saddle maker on a Marine base in the 1920s and 1930s.

 

 

 

 

49697460783_1da8ccefc0_k.jpg

Thanks Sandpebbles for the sling photos! Never knew these existed, going to go check a couple slings I have.

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Usmccollector

Hey Jake, do you have a picture or share where you got the information about the press i would love to see it to share with other fellow collectors

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TheSandpebbles

S.P., you've really got some nice stuff!! :wacko:

 

Thanks 'Flage Guy! It took forever to find all the items to finish the uniform.

 

 

Wow. Very impressive. Is the first aid pouch original? I believe you need to look into the mess kit, though. Isn't that a 1942 pattern? Premature for 1937. You'd most likely have the M1910 pattern.

 

Thanks Dreamer42! Yeah, everything is original except the service shoes. The following photographs were taken in Shanghai in 1937. I believe they show a food truck supplying the Marines on patrol around the International Settlement (Probably on the Soochow Creek).

 

ro-n0699.jpg?itok=rS0hBAKT

 

ro-n0701.jpg?itok=NMhlfqnv

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Sandpebbles for the sling photos! Never knew these existed, going to go check a couple slings I have.

 

 

I didn't either! I found out about them by accident. If you look closely at early/pre WWII photos you see quite a few being carried by Marines.

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TheSandpebbles
The Marines patrolling the Soochow often wore gas mask carriers due to concerns that the Japanese or Chinese would use chemical warfare during the fight to take the city. Photographic evidence shows these carriers were marked ‘US’ with the benzene ring over two crossed chemistry retorts of the Chemical Warfare Service.
49697998751_fa5865236d_k.jpg

MIIIA1 service gas mask carrier; this specific carrier can be identified from earlier models by the straight lines, rather than a uniform curve, along the lower edge and from later models by the lack of a loop on the lower snap fastener.

 

 

49697465878_e2d79c7a87_k.jpg

Inside the carrier is an M1A2 service gas mask. This model of mask was produced circa 1935 and only came in one ‘universal’ size.

 

ro-n1029.jpg?itok=brZmz75Q

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Thanks Jake! I actually put those photos together myself. It's all original equipment, except the service shoes.

 

 

 

 

Thanks GWS! I'm not sure if you saw my earlier reply to you, but I posted some pictures of China Marines in 1937 with what appear to be seamed scabbard covers. Take a look and tell me what you think...

 

Went back and reviewed your earlier photos and I agree, they do look like the depot made scabbard covers. The photos don't lie so that would mean they were made at least by '37 or earlier. That's a lot earlier than the one-source info I have (1940) and I certainly appreciate the additional information. Thanks,

 

Steve

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Jake the Collector

Sandpebbles, your reconstructions are very, very impressive. They belong in a reference book. Do you happen to have any others representing different eras?

 

Raul, here is the document I was referring to. I was generously given a copy by a fellow forum member.

 

post-159182-0-54865800-1585329144.png

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TheSandpebbles

 

I'm not sure...could it be Boy Scout?

 

 

 

Went back and reviewed your earlier photos and I agree, they do look like the depot made scabbard covers. The photos don't lie so that would mean they were made at least by '37 or earlier. That's a lot earlier than the one-source info I have (1940) and I certainly appreciate the additional information. Thanks,

 

Steve

 

I have a suspicion that the Depot produced a lot of items for the Marines reinforcing Shanghai in 1937. I don't have documentation to support this, it just appears to be the case in photographic evidence.

 

 

Sandpebbles, your reconstructions are very, very impressive. They belong in a reference book. Do you happen to have any others representing different eras?

 

Raul, here is the document I was referring to. I was generously given a copy by a fellow forum member.

 

attachicon.gifPicture1.png

 

Thank you very much Jake, that is very nice of you to say! I have always been disappointed when reference books skim over the interwar period, so I wanted to focus this reconstruction on that period. The only other reconstructions I can put together are 1930s CCC or Inter/early war British Empire uniforms.

 

Thank you so much for sharing this fascinating document! It sounds like a lot of three rivet meat cans drawn out of shape during the assembly process, which expains why the one I posted earlier fits the dish crooked, as the pan is slightly mis-shaped.

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  • 1 year later...

This is a great thread.  I appreciate you all sharing your collections.

 

I have a small USMC collection.   Maybe one piece is depot made.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 5 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
Broadarrowmaint

Found this meat can at the Reading PA air show. At first didn't know what it was because it was void of all markings or dates, and thought it was interestingly constructed with two rivets. Well after doing some research on M-1932 meat cans it had different features like no hole in the handle, and it lacked the reinforcement rib between the rivets. A buddy of mine showed me some pictures of it in Tulkoffs book and it seems to indeed be a 1940 production depot made meat can interestingly enough made right here in Philadelphia. Pretty cool! And its in wonderful shape too!

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19 hours ago, punched primer said:

20230605_163514.jpg

 

Punched Primer-  AMAZING USMC Depot Items!  What do you classify the pouch above as? Ongoing debate on another thread of what these pouches were used for... 

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punched primer
2 hours ago, RedLegRob said:

 

Punched Primer-  AMAZING USMC Depot Items!  What do you classify the pouch above as? Ongoing debate on another thread of what these pouches were used for... 

No idea...I want to know too..where's the thread on it? Thx

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  • 3 weeks later...

Discussion on this ‘mystery case’ occurred on p4 of the VB Grenade Launcher Thread (link below)…. Despite many across the field asserting they’ve ‘seen these,’ there seems to still be little known as to what these are for.

 

https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/361027-vb-rifle-grenade-launcher/page/5/

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