OSS use of JLMGs

[Bob Lamoreaux 0]

A "Letter to the Editor" in the October 2005 AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, page 18, indicates that on Jan. 23, 1945, there were 4,029 JSARs in the OSS inventory in Burma and on August 1, 1945, there were 856 JLMGs with 35,880 (!) magazine assemblies. Additionally, the OSS in China had an inventory of 13 JSARs and 6 JLMGs. This letter was drafted by Dr. John Brunner, author of OSS WEAPONS, an out-of-print book. Dr. Brunner was in the OSS in China and was a member of a "declassification" team for the CIA's transfer of OSS files to the National Archives (NARA). His research is superb and can be relied upon.

This suggests that there are some "unaccounted for" Johnson weapons around, and gives credence to a "Letter to the Editor" of the AMERICAN RIFLEMAN in response to our 2-part article on Johnson weapons that appeared in the 1970s (or was it the early '80s?) in which a retired USMC colonel stated that at least one JLMG was in the hands of ChiCom troops during the unpleasantness in Korea in the early '50s. Obviously an OSS "left-behind". Also gives credence to a JSAR showing up in Singapore, if memory serves, about ten years ago, allegedly from a Nationalist Chinese soldier "bring-back" from WWII. Another OSS rifle, no doubt.

Anyone have a good relationship with military or intelligence types in Burma (what is it called now? Mayamar?) to see if these Johnson weapons can be tracked down? I suspect that some of the Burma OSS guns went to rubber plantation guards in Malaya during the insurgency there, as Chan Gardiner, Jr. indicated that some J-guns were used to defend rubber plantations. . .

Bob

[Guest bettsnjd]

The American Rifleman magazines referred to are April and May of 1984. Prelude to the Canfield book, right ? John D.