Tag Archives: Reising M50

Frogskins, Reisings, and War Bonnets

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These 80-year-old images are for your perusal.

Official caption: Navajo Code Talkers on Bougainville, December 1943 (left to right, front row): Pvt Earl Johnny, Pvt Kee Etsicitty, Pvt John V. Goodluck, and PFC David Jordan. Rear row, left to right: Pvt Jack C. Morgan, Pvt George H. Kirk, Pvt Tom H. Jones, Cpl Henry Bake, Jr.

Note the H&R-made Reising M50 HR submachine gun and newly-issued M1 Garands, two with 1907 bayonets affixed. From the Photograph Collection (COLL/3948) at the Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections

USMC Navajo Code Talkers, Bougainville, December 1943, Note the compact Reising Model 55 SMG

Corporal Henry Bahe, Jr., left, and Pvt. First Class George H. Kirk, Navajo code talkers

While an estimated 420 members of the Navajo nation served in the Marines as Code Talkers, at the same time there were other members of the tribe in USMC units in other roles, while, elsewhere in the theatre, the Army’s 158th Infantry Regiment-– the “Bushmasters” — an Arizona National Guard unit that held members from at least 20 tribes, also had a sizable contingent of Navajo who were photographed at the same time.

Dec. 1943: American Navajo Indians from the Southwest United States, members of the 158th U.S. Infantry, are seen on a beach in the Solomon Islands. They are in their traditional dress for a tribal ceremony at Christmastime. From left to right are, Pfc. Dale Winney, Gallup, N.M; Pvt. Perry Toney, Holbrook, Ariz.; Pfc. Joe Gishi, Holbrook; and Pfc. Joe Taraha, Gallup. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)

Is that a Reising, or are you just happy to see me?

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Saw this in a news image from down in Old Mexico.

Captioned as "Masked and armed men guard a roadblock near the town of Ayutla, Mexico, on Jan. 18. Hundreds of men in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs." With no attribution

Captioned as “Masked and armed men guard a roadblock near the town of Ayutla, Mexico, on Jan. 18. Hundreds of men in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs.” With no attribution

The gun, for those of you who are hardware savvy, appears to me to be a M50 Reising submachine gun.

I did a piece on these little forgotten WWII gems for Guns.com last year that will give you more information but bottom line is H&R (yes, the shotgun fellas from Massachusetts) made about 123,500 of these .45ACP subguns to the design of one Eugene G. Reising from 1940-46 in several variants. The USMC used them in Guadalcanal before replacing them with more reliable gear, with the balance being issued stateside to state guards and the USCG for beach patrol (see below).

coast guard beach patrol w riesing

After the war many were handed out by the Office of Civil Defense (now FEMA) to police agencies for use if WWIII ever cracked open. This had led to a bunch of small departments still having these old guns around.

How this one showed up in Mexico is anyone’s guess. The forward grip and shortened/repaired stock is a nice, locally added touch.

If a gun could talk…