Odd Facts US Army

   The United States had two versions of the 48 star flag.

This is the most common one, but there is another one where every other line is off center, it looks like the current US 50 star flag.  Either one is acceptable.

 In 1942 when US Army troops were stationed in Northern Ireland they trained with British 25 pounders field guns.  They had not yet received their US 105mm howitzers.  The 25 pounders were towed using American 2 1/2 ton trucks and no limber as the ammo was carried in the truck.

Later in North Africa, American Army troops used the 25 pounder again due to a lack of 105mm artillery ammunition.  In the Battle of the Bulge the US Army used the 25 pounder with the muzzle break due to a lack of ammunition!  Again!

 Gettysburg was the site of a major battle during the American Civil War.  In World War One it was the site of the first tank training facility, Camp Colt. Captain Dwight D. Eisenhower was the camp commander.  In World War Two Gettysburg was the site of a prisoner or war camp for German and Japanese prisoners.  Many World War Two American soldiers were buried at Gettysburg during the war.  President Eisenhower and his wife owned a home at Gettysburg and it was their vacation White House when he was president.  So if you wargame the American Civil War and set up a Gettysburg game, you can use the terrain for many different purposes!

 

 
 Just after World War One John Browning worked on an anti-tank rifle for the US Army.  It eventually became the M2 .50 caliber machine gun.  But at first it was an anti-tank rifle that saw a few built for testing.  Might be an interesting alternative history weapon for World War One or maybe for a 1938 US Army.

The French 75 was built in the USA during World War One and 148 were shipped to France before the end of the war.  It was called the 75mm Gun M1897.  Post war some of these were updated and given a new carriage that looks a lot like the US 105mm split trail carriage with dish type wheels.  By 1926 only one battery was completed due to a lack of funding.  The US Army actually wanted to replace them wiht 105mm howitzers but could not due to lack of funding.  The US did get about a dozen of 105mm guns constructed but due to funding they could not build more.  They were essentially the WWII era 105mm gun with a smaller shield and wooden wagon wheels.  Only about a battery were built.

The 75mm Field Gun M1897A2 was the World War One era French 75 with pneumatic tires and new brakes to enable it to be towed by motor transport.  Artillery with wooden wagon wheels will tend to bounce at motor vehicle speeds and will flip over often taking the motor vehicle with it.  Rubber tires don't do that.  Only about 1/2 of the US supply of French 75's was converted prior to World War Two.  French 75s were used in training during WWII by the US.

I have managed to cobble together a few of these for my Interwar US Army forces.

This is the field version of the US Army flag.  It us normally on a while field rather than a blue field.  The blue field was chosen because the white could be misconstrued as a flag of surrender.  So when you have your US Army troops in the field you can use this flag.