Rare U.S.A official army manual related to SPECIFICALLY the Shot Guns used in the US Army /USMC during WW2 - as used by various units including officers and airborne in the PTO, among others. This edition is from 1942, a nice early edition. Beautiful plates, drawings, and information on maintenance and use, over 250!!! pages full of plates and text. Great rare item and highly illustrative for your usa collection, especially if you own a demilitarized shot gun, you dont find this manual easily! History of the Shot Gun in the US Army The shotgun was used by Allied forces and Allied-supported partisans in all theaters of combat in World War II, and both pump and semi-automatic shotguns are currently issued to all branches of the US military; they have also been used in subsequent conflicts by French, British, Australian, and New Zealand forces, as well as many guerrillas and insurgents throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Latin and South America, and Southeast Asia.[2] Six different model of shotguns were accepted in the US army during World War II, the most popular being the M97 and M1912. One disadvantage of using a shotgun in the Pacific Theatre was the way of carrying the shotshells. The standard rifle pouches that carried shotshells were small, only about 30 rounds if carried vertically. Some Marines carried the shells in SL-3 grenade vests from World War I, but these vests were hard to come by. Also used were modified bandoliers and whatever came to hand or could be improvised. Another disadvantage was paper-hulled shotshells, which would swell when they became damp in a rainy or humid environment, and would not fit into the chamber even after drying out. Commercial paper hulls were later impregnated with wax to make them water resistant, but in combat the heat from rapid firing would cause the wax to melt, often resulting in a jammed gun. Military-issue shotshells were usually made entirely of brass to avoid these issues, until the introduction of plastic hulls in the early 1960s. General Alexander Patch was seen being armed with a Winchester shotgun when he personally led an attack in Guadalcanal.[