Sgt. Saunder's Thompson

I just watched an episode where Kirby's BAR ripped off a good hundred rounds and not once did he reload.

Probably something along the lines of propane and an igniter.

+1 on a small propane tank and igniter, plus the sound dubbed in later.

nelsondobbins

In a letter Rick Jason wrote to a fan about Combat, he explained a number of interesting events which occured when they first started filming the series. Initailly offered the Thompson by the prop man, Jason immediately turned it down. Having been around firearms for most of his life, he knew what the Thompson weighed and wanted no part of carrying it around for all those episodes (back then a typical series had 32 or 33 episodes per season). Jason opted for the M1 carbine and Vic Morrow (who was really anti-gun offscreen), got the Thompson. Jason wrote that the barrel of the Thompson had been "choked down" to give enough back pressure for the blanks to function properly, but that it seldom worked right, and frequently jammed. For most of the non-firing scenes, Morrow usually carried a prop gun, which weighed considerably less than the actual Thompson. I think if you watch the scenes where Morrow fires the Thompson (which isn't all that often), you'll notice that it's very short bursts, probably only two or three shots (before it jammed). I think an Arizona Class 3 dealer ended up buying the Thompson, as well as some other guns used in the series, when the studios sold off a lot of their props back in the '70s.

Combat, having been one of my favorite TV shows as a kid, I recently rented the first couple DVD's from the beginning of the first season. I was surprised to see in the first several episodes, Saunders did NOT carry the Thompson. He alternately carried either an M1 Carbine, or a Garand in maybe the first 3 or 4 episodes. I had not remembered that as a kid. I also did not remember that there were actually some pretty good storylines in those shows. I just remembered all the cool guns and shooting....LOL

The Thompson would have had to fire .45ACP blanks. I think it did have to eject them, but it's possible the shutter of the movie camera might have obscured them. If you've seen westerns when stagecoaches go by, and the wheels appear to be either frozen, or turning in reverse, you have noted the effect a 24 f.p.s. motion picture camera can have on some moving items.

There is a coffee table book on COMBAT! written by Jo Davidsmeyer in which the author relates a story almost identical to bannockburn's post. Rick Jason was offered the Thompson, but he was a hunter & reloader and knew what it was like to carry a gun around for a long period of time, and he deliberatly asked the prop man for the lightest gun they had, which is how he wound up with the carbine. All the other guns worked OKAY with the barrels blocked for blank use, for some unknown reason the Thompson was, as Vic Morrow said, a "jammomatic." That is not why it was used in short bursts; it was normal to fire the Thompson in short bursts due to what's called "walk up." A submachinegun, when fired by a right handed user, will tend to have the barrel go up and right due to collective recoil. Users were trained to hold the weapon properly and to keep bursts with SMG's down. This also helped conserve ammo to an extent, but the real reason was to keep barrel rise under control & fast reacquisition of target.
Having said that, I have seen a few scenes in COMBAT! where the Tommygun did jam, and the solution was a quick cut to a different viewpoint.
I recall Saunders carrying a Garand in the D-Day landing episode titled "A Day in June" and a M-1 Carbine in the episode "The Squad," but I don't recall any other episodes where he carried something other than the 1928A1 Thompson.
The prop Tommygun was made out of wood by the MGM prop shop, and it was made up because Morrow complained about the weight of the gun over the period of a long work day.

http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/main.html
The above is a great website about the show. WHen the DVDs first came out, my young son and I searched and bought them one by one. We have watched them over and over since, all five seasons.
Coincidentally, an older gentleman in our church heard me speak about the moral lessons taught by many of the Combat stories and he told us that "Kirby", one of the squad in the show, was his first cousin and lived in a nearby town. We asked him to arrange a meeting. He said he would call him but that to expect him to say no because he was more or less a recluse living and caring for his older brother. Surprisingly Kirby said yes and invited us to his home. We spent a day with him and he even took us out to eat at his favorite Mexican restaurant. He related stories about Dick Peabody, Pierre, Rick, and Vic. He was very open and honest. He loved the show. He talked about one of the greatest episodes, Hills are for Heroes.His wonderful line, "...what about him?...I don't even know his name...He can't come down.." was an improvised line that many critics praised in the series. Kirby got tears in his eyes when he was relating his story to us. He was so gracious and intelligent. He allowed us to take pictures and he gave us an old studio promotional photo of the squad with all the signatures. The show was a great series with a lot of great stories, acting, and wonderful music that hasn't been often surpassed.

I got the Series 1 DVD set and in the pilot episode Rick Jason is a SSG (Sergeant with one rocker) or whatever that rank was called in WWII. He got a battlefield promotion to 2LT.

The Germans always had the same GPMG - looked like an old Maxim with a waterjacket, not a MG 34 or MG 42 that I would have expected.

My favorite all-time show as a kid.

Thanks for the memories.

Today hollywood would turn them into mass murderers and rapists.

BigG said:

The Germans always had the same GPMG - looked like an old Maxim with a waterjacket, not a MG 34 or MG 42 that I would have expected.

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There were episodes where they had MG 42s, although they did sometimes have other machineguns like what you mentioned.

I recall one episode where I got quick look at some semiauto rifle one German was carrying, and it looked like an M-1 Carbine since it had a magazine visible beneath the reciever. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a G43.

I saw the episode where the German had the G43. I thought that was a nice touch.

Kirby's BAR ripped off a good hundred rounds and not once did he reload.

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Sorta like Chuck Conners racking off 12 rounds in the opening sequence of "The Rifleman"? Hooray for Hollywood!
My favorite "Combat" episode was "The Impostor".
Basically because Ed Kemmer was the guest star. Ed was formerly Cmdr. Buzz Corry of "Space Patrol"!
Jack

Neat thread. Thanks for bringing back a lot of nice memories.