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Left Hand 1903A3

5K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  TiredIron 
#1 ·
Just watching the History channel on the WWII Italian campaign and one of the clips shows clearly a 1903A3 being carried by a GI with a bolt handle on the left side. Huh. Never knew that the US made a rifle just for us Left handed guys. That is really nice of them, now to find one. Or the film clip was backwards...... :rofl:
 
#3 ·
Yes and there were BARs that ejected cases from the left side and BMGs that fed from the right side. I have also seen scenes about the battle of Britain where the Germans were flying B17s. Sometimes you will see scenes about the Pacific war where the Japanese are flying Me 109s. If the movie is about the Civil War and General Sherman's Army why not show Sherman tanks.
 
#4 ·
You know, the Germans actually did fly B17s...... Captured and repaired, they were used to attack formations. . There are photos of the planes with German markings, and even airfields with M2Browninigs mounted for AA work. But I know what you mean.
 
#5 ·
Not to derail, but I see this with guitar players also.

Albert King, one of the best blues players IMHO, was a lefty.

Surprised to see him as a righty on a Stax album cover!

Music Entertainment Music artist Album cover Musician
 
#6 ·
You see a lot of historical documentaries where they don't seem to make much of an effort to get the right footage. It can be a show about Vietnam and they will show scenes from WWII. The one I see most often every December 7th is an item about remembering Pearl Harbor. Invariably they will show the scene of several dive bombers making their attack followed by a picture of a torpedo plane dropping a torpedo. They of course are trying to represent Japanese planes but the dive bombers are U.S. Navy SBDs with the national markings obscured by the film maker and the torpedo plane is a Grumman TBFs. These scenes were taken from a WWII documentary when they didn't have any pictures of actual Japanese plane in the attack so they made due with what they had. Hey a plane is a plane right. Some documentaries do make an effort to get it right but I guess most people aren't as picky as I am.
 
#8 ·
Enemy at the Gate

Look at jacket for the DVD of Enemy at the Gate. Left hand Nagant.......

Also at the jacket for Saving Private Ryan, ammo can stenciled .308......

A few of us always enjoyed meeting with the label reps and giving them a bad time for some of this stuff, in fairness these things happened way before they were involved.

If you want more real life confusion check out what former WWII American pilots flew when they volunteered for service creating the first Isreali Air Force.
 
#9 · (Edited)
i don't remember an ammo can stenciled .308 in Saving Private Ryan. I don't believe the military ever marked ammo cans with that commercial designation. Maybe you mean 7,62 NATO. I don't remember that error but I do remember in the last part of the D day portion they show bodies in the serf and .50 cal M2A1 post war ammo boxes floating there. What bothered me more is they are floating but I think if they were full of ammo they would sink.
 
#10 ·
as a reenactor I spot things like that in war films. even if I don't want to, i notice it.
Rubber bayonets bending on civil war muskets as troops charge
blanks used in belted machine gun ammo in Fury and The Pacific
M-60 tanks used in The Battle of the Bulge. Oh yes in one scene the M-60 tanks had the bow machine gun on the driver's side. I think that might be done as they reverse photograph or something.
I think in Kelly's Heroes at one point the BAR gunner was using a Swedish BAR
In Stalag 17 the German compound guards were manning a 1919a4 in the first escape scene in the beginning.

I just recently caught a WWI documentary where they used a few second black n white footage of a GI firing an M1 carbine. Sometimes in their rush to fill a certain amount of footage the producers add anachronistic fluff
 
#13 ·
Yes the Kelly's Hero BAR gunner was carrying a foreign BAR probably Swedish and the only one they could find at the time. You may also have noticed the American Sniper did not carry a M1903A4 or M1C. He carried a Mosin Nagant. Probably the only rifle with a scope they could find. After all they filmed it in a communist country I recall. It would have been more realistic had he carried a captured Mauser sniper rifle.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Somebody mentioned the movie "Battle of the Bulge. I have always felt this was one of the worst war movies ever. I understand there was a legal case before it was made as another company wanted to make a movie about that battle. In the end the producers were not allowed to use the names of any real people like Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery or Patton so they had to make up a bunch of fiction to have a story. The battle was fought in the middle of the winter in Belgium but there isn't much snow in the movie. There is not a single Sherman tank in the movie and at one point the Americans attack the Germans with light scout tanks and the Germans are using heavy tanks and the american after shooting his 37 mm gun at the German heavy remarks "it's like hitting them with tennis balls" Well yeah, like the Americans would have ever used light tanks against even German medium tanks. The film makers don't even try to duplicate the German Tiger King tanks The tanks they use to represent the Germans are old US M47s as I think it was filmed in Spain.They painted the German tanks grey a color the Germans dropped earlier in the war but Hollywood has used ever since. At one point the German commander reviews his tank commanders and says " they are all just boys". Then one of the boys starts singing the Panzer Lied (Panzer song). And the commander sees they have a lot of esprit. The trouble is they sing the first verse four or more times and there are actually at least five verses to the song.
 
#15 ·
Gettysburg

We just watched the Turner movie Gettysburg/Killer Angels with my grandson. My how life changed in the couple of years since filming.
Yes, there were rubber bayonets & rifles, the paid stunt men were the ones being blown in the air. If you watch the scenes for the final battle, that was filmed on the battlefield as we attacked at the Angle. What is interesting is as you watch the lines approach from the woods that area is now lined with memorials. These were covered with paintings of trees and foliage on sheets of plywood. The dead horses were rubber forms with shag carpet.
 
#17 ·
in the days of film it was very easy to reverse the negative.......
Arizona Highways magazine once did a spread on re-enactors of the Indian war period back in the 1970's there is a great photo of an Indian brave with a Spencer carbine with the hammer on the left side...... happens to the best of them....

By the way there is a period photo WWII of a left handed 1919A4 out there also....
 
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