WWI USMC Army M1910 Pick Mattock HEAD ("U.S." in serif font) EXC+++ for Sale

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WWI USMC Army M1910 Pick Mattock HEAD ("U.S." in serif font) EXC+++ For Sale

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WWI USMC Army M1910 Pick Mattock HEAD ("U.S." in serif font) EXC+++:
$82.50

WWI M1910 Pick Mattock HEAD ("U.S.") EXCELLENT+++ with Original paint!

-Adeeply stamped M1910Pick Head withthe "U.S."surcharge in the distinctive large serif font. No date. No maker.

-Theseearly tools from the First World War are extremely SCARCEand differ from those manufactured during WWII in the followingrespects:

(1)On Picks of WWI manufacture the"U.S."surcharge is stamped in a conspicuous serif-fonton side of the pick end of the Mattock

(2)On Picks of WWI manufacture there is complete absenceof any contractor name or year of manufacture on either the Pick Heador the Handle.

(3)Typically, during WWI the Pick is foundry-stamped on the verticalside of the Pick-end (and not on the top or the bottom of the Blade).

+ Original factory-applied Olive Drab paint!+ No rust, gouges, or 'bites' to the blade. No dulling to the point. No significant loss of paint.

+This is a very handsome "combat serviceable" entrenching tool, that shows the authenticating 'patina' of actual in-theater use during the First World War in France and quite possibly reissued and used again in the Second World War in either the Pacific or the European Theater of Operations.

This piece dates from the the outset of the Marines' and Army's campaigns on the Western Front of France with the A.E.F. and again, twenty years later on Guadalcanal alongside the Marines of the 1st Marine Division in the Southern Solomon Islands (Operation Watchtower), and the Army's bitter island-hopping slog up from New Guinea Northwestward to Japan's Home Islands.

It just as well could have served in the fighting in North Africa commencing with Operation Torch, the Mediterranean Theater, and the subsequent fighting in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, or in France, Central Europe, and Germany following the Normandy Invasion. It could have have been carried on the jump into Sicily or Normandy by Airborne personnel.

*****

"Holes,Shovels, and Picks"

(excerptedfrom the handsome, carefully researched work by Denis Hambucken,AG.I. IN THE ARDENNES: The Battle of the Bulge,Pen & Sword Military Books, Ltd.,2020).

"Secondonly to his rifle, the infantryman's most important tool is hisENTRENCHINGTOOL.TheM1943 entrenching shovel features a swiveling head that can be fullyextended, angled as a hoe, or folded back for storage. TheM1943 gradually replaces the M1910Shovel,although many soldiers prefer the T-handle over the older model.Wherever a unit stops, the first order of business is usually diggingin for concealment and protection against shelling and small arms. Ifthey are only stopping for a few hours or to bivouac for the night,soldiers dig individual slit trenches about two foot wide, two footdeep and as long as the soldier is tall. Remembers William Campbellof the 28thInfantry Division:"It was like digging a grave."If the positionis to be held, one or two-men foxholes are dug about four to fivefeet deep, usually with a step at the bottom, upon which soldiers cansit down, or stand to stay out of pooling water or to fire theirrifles. According to army manuals, a foxhole with two feet ofclearance above a crouching soldier protects him from tanks passingoverhead, but German tankers learn to skid their treads over foxholesto collapse them and bury occupants alive.The longer theyremain in a defensive location the more elaborate their underground"homes" become. Foxholes are improved with roofs made oflogs, doors or corrugated steel taken from nearby buildings andcovered with earth for protection against tree bursts and mortarshells. The floor is lined with hay or pine boughs. Soldiers carveout shelves for supplies, candles and ammunition.FrankMareska of the 75thInfantry Divisionrecalls that the much-dreaded German 88 guns left no time to duck:

“Youonly venture out of your foxhole if it was necessary. Pissing orshitting had to be done either in a K or C-ration box, period!Renderings could then be thrown out over the parapet of yourfoxhole.”

Largerholes are dug for machine guns and mortar positions, sometimes,entire vehicles are entrenched. When visibility is limited by fallingsnow, fog or obscurity, companies dig listening slit trenches somedistance outside their perimeter to post sentries.

Hard-frozenground is doubly murderous for the infantry: It makes shells moredeadly as they explode on the surface, rather than penetrate theground, and it also makes it much more difficult to dig in. JohnMcAuliffe of the 87thInfantry Division recallsthat setting up a mortar position involves digging a large, two tothree-foot deep circular entrenchment in addition to individualfoxholes for the crew: "Sometimes we were digging a hole and wewere almost done and they'd say: 'OK, we’re moving out!'“.Aftera long day of fighting, many are too exhausted to dig. In someplaces, the frozen ground is simply too hard for the entrenchingshovel and few men carry the cumbersome MI910 pick-mattock.

Mostvehicles carry full-size shovels, axes and pickaxes. John Di Battistaof the 4th Armored Division recalls: "The mattocks were heavyenough to go through the crust of ground. Once the crust was brokenout, entrenching tools could do the job.[...] We were desperatehugging the ground waiting for our turn at a pick."

Someunits are provided with half-pound blocks of TNT with pull-type fuselighters, fuses and blasting caps to blast through therock-hard crust of the frozen ground. An obvious disadvantage of theTNT method is the attention it draws. Rocco Moretto of the 1stInfantry Division recalls:"Everything was going beautifully but the TNT threw up heavyblack smoke in the explosion areas. The enemy observing this quicklybegan to rake our positions with heavy concentrations of fire and webegan to sustain heavy casualties."Naturally,soldiers do not bother to fill their foxholes as they leave,consequently, Europe is riddled with millions of holes. It is notunusual for a foxhole to be occupied alternatively by American andGerman soldiers. After the war, It falls to landowners and farmers tofill in hundreds of thousands of foxholes and shell craters which aretroublesome for machinery and hazardous to livestock. A post warsurvey of the grounds of the Castle of Rolley, an area of about 730acres near Bastogne, counts no less than 2,490 foxholes to fill in.