OSS CBI Photobook 15 - Southwest China, 1945- Reconnaissance, Part 3, The Rifle Strap

Lingering still on the top half of Photobook page 15, we focus on this excellent view of gear.  The posed photo of our EJZ, showing how the OSS looks for bad guys in caves, also shows us that the unit is still in wait-and-prepare mode at this point.  So look at the items: rifle with strap, pistol in holster, either a US M3 fighting knife or US M4 bayonet with the hilt visible behind the holster, and a magazine pouch mounted on the stock. A 15-round magazine is visible just below the sight.

The rifle is a .30 Caliber M1  carbine.

What is that vertical thing on the side of the stock?

And, dangling down from our view of the holster, hence attached either to the holster, or to the bayonet or knife, is a strange thing with strings dangling off it. What is it?

The photo below, illustrating a US Army paratrooper's kit, is from Philip B. Sharp's 1938 The Rifle in America.  The paratrooper's M1 carbine is a little shorter than the standard M1 rifle that ground troops would carry, according to the text.  It does not look exactly the same as the carbine carried by Pfc Eugene Zdrojewski: the vertical thing on the stock looks different. It is an "M11903A1."

But look, you can see very well how the strap attaches to the rifle.

In the paratrooper's kit, above, from Sharp's book, it is clear that the knife is different; the ammunition pouch looks similar;  those two empty pouches (above the grenades and to the left of the gloves) look very familiar, don't they; the binoculars case looks exactly like the one on the kitchen windowsill of the Marilla house - how about that.

The holy Wikipedia article has a very clear photo of the M1 rifle and the M1 carbine:

Wikipedia:  "Carbine."

We have seen this type of carbine before, from Photobook Page 3, of training near U Chicago in the summer of 1944.  By the time our EJZ gets to China, he has been training with this rifle for a year and a half.

From Photobook Page 3.

Again from Photobook Page 3.

We have the strap from Dad's M1 carbine.

Marty and I - nosy kids - always knew it was there in his closet, way over on the right, by his neckties, looped around one of those skinny white coat hangers.  We thought nothing of it.

Then the day came when we emptied the Marilla house, and there it still was.  

When Gene came home, for the rest of his life he went to sleep with his rifle strap no more than 12 feet from his hand.

Z

OSS CBI Photobook 15 - Southwest China, 1945- Reconnaissance, Part 2, Is this "Frenchie?"

Last post included this photo of a man in Dad's unit:

So far there is nothing found in the Trove that gives a clue to his identity.  However, several sleepless nights and absent-minded days have brought back a memory that might pertain to this man.  I remember Mom explaining to us kids about the nightmares Dad would have fairly often.  Obviously he was reliving skirmishes in his dreams.  One recurring line was:

"Hey, Frenchie!  Look out! Look out, Frenchie!!"

Mills, Mills, and Brunner's 2002 OSS Special Operations in China introduces Team Jackal, including a subgroup, or "echelon," consisting of "Zarembo, . . . Robichaud . . . and . . . Zdrojewski."

For the moment we will concentrate on the introduction therein to Lieutenant Albert Robichaud. He had   "completed two operational missions behind the lines in France, testing circuits of the clandestine travel routes operated by the combined ODD/British SOE 'DF Section' for Western Europe that were used to move people, equipment, money, and messages between Europe and London. The most important function was to move secret agents working for the British and OSS into France and other countries and to bring them out again to the London headquarters.  The travel nets were also used for the return to England of downed airmen from the air attacks over Western Europe.   So Lieutenant Robichaud was another combat OSS veteran redeployed from operations in France and a welcome addition to the team." (Mills, Mills, and Brunner, 2002, p. 83-84.)

Surely, Lt. Robichaud is "Frenchie."  Here it is, 2014, and the heirs of our own EJZ finally figure this out.  Would that these two have both lived long enough to have found each other, emailed each other, and arranged a meetup here on Earth.  It is heart-rending to realize that that almost  happened, but did not.

So, all right, we shall try to find this Lieutenant Albert, and what we find we shall report.

In the meantime, restful dreams, to them both.

Z