Fire Team 1944 Style

 

Throughout the war, US infantry squads were often divided into four-man fire teams. This team centers on a BAR, two riflemen with Mi Grand semi-automatic rifles while the fourth man has a close-range killer-the Winchester 1897 12-gauge trench-gun in leu of a submachinegun or another M1. Normally each man would also carry one or two fragmentation grenades in addition to their main weapon.

As the BAR provided much of the support fire, it was common for the members of a fire team with a BAR to each carry two extra 20 round BAR magazines in addition to their regular load of ammo of 88 rounds in 11-8 round clips. The BAR man carried 180 rounds in 9 magazines of 20 cartridges each. It was common for the men to grab additional rounds/clips/magazines, often in cloth bandoliers, as the saying goes you can never have enough ammo. 

 These are plastic pieces I painted in January.