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I wonder what the odds are for shooting down a plane with a rifle.
The machine gun would be an M2 more than likely with the heavy (making 121 lbs total) water filled jacket on a special AA mounting. The water cooled version had a much higher rate of fire and looked a lot bigger than a standard M2(50 cal). I get the feeling that the 50 cal AA ammo containers were the same as on a Maxson mount. I don't think anybody makes this version of the M2 in plastic so it may be a first.
I would have preferred 2 of the riflemen as stretcher bearers.
The work uniform clad ones will be more useful to me. If the figure either with the M2 or carrying the ammo is Dorie Miller he was depicted in Tora,Tora, Tora in a mess attendants uniform and Pearl Harbour (Cuba Gooding Jr)in a t shirt. I am not sure which is best or the most acurate but he was serving in the mess when the raid happened. It is difficult to tell from the photos but if the figure is supposed to be a generic African American rather than Dorie Miller then very few African Americans* were assigned combat roles (ie regular rated seamen) in the US Navy at this time.
David
*Wiki states 6 out of 4,007 African Americans out of a total of 170,000 naval personnel were regular rated seaman.
I figured Dorie Miller a giant (well, 191 cm tall) but this fellow rather reminds me of the weedy Atlantic figures' stature. This is, however, a very original set and like RCD I can see many uses for them from 1900 on (hope the sailor dress is correct for the Boxer uprising?). Regards, Pa
I have wanted to wargame the sand Pebbles ever since I saw the film in the 1960s. Wonderful release Strelets and thank you GarrisonClay!
Dear Exscolari,
Cheers! I too saw the film in the 60's and what a Classic. Hopefully S*R will give us more U.S. Navy Landing Party type Sailors in fighting kit. They really are quite useful for so many wars. I liked both the One-Sixth Sailors in both their white and blue uniforms with hat and helmet. This first set is very nice and still so much more could be done.
Nice American seamen which have alot of potential.We could also do with some WW2 Royal Navy as well. As an extra special figure you could have one pose being a crew man with a cutlass!
One of the more interesting stories was the boarding of the German Altmark which was skulking in neutral Norwegian water. Aboard was 250 British merchant navy seamen being held in terrible conditions which the Norwegian navy failed to notice!Under international law they should have been released on entering neutral waters. The destroyer Cossack was sent in and boarded the Altmark to liberated the captive merchantmen. It was the last time that cutlasses were used by the RN. Certainly, I would not argue with someone waving a cutlass at me!
US Navy sailors are great. I will buy many of them. Blue is my first choice, but making them in both Blue and White would cause me to buy twice as many. Crew on a Panay Class gunboat is about 65. An early war battleship has a crew of about 2,000. Looks like I am going to need a lot of these guys.
after some decades here come the first set of US navy sailors in plastic, I'm very happy, those sailors with the dixie cup on their head are useful and can be easily converted to serve aboard any US navy warship for the whole period of the war.
I can only hope that this set will be followed by more sailors !