MilsurpDan
Ultimate Member
I don’t know what archives show, but my
great uncle, Co A, 305th Inf, 77th Inf Div,
carried one.
The 305th regimental history cites
that the regiment loved their Winchester’s,
which were issued in the late fall of ‘17 at Camp Upton. It notes they then initially
trained on SMLEs when they first arrived in France and were trained by Brits in a quiet sector, before moving up into more active areas.
They were then reissued their “Winnies” for
the transition to more active service, and
carried them into combat and through the
rest of their service. If I recall correctly,
they deployed from the US to France in
April of ‘18.
Not sure whether the rest of the 77th Div
(to include the various units that comprised
“The Lost Battalion”) carried Winchester’s,
but the ‘17, made by whatever
manufacturer, was their standard.
Lots of interesting primary documents in this thread on Gunboards about the discrimination against Winchester M1917’s due to interchangeability issues.
https://forums.gunboards.com/showth...ikelyhood-your-M1903-and-M1917-went-to-France
Basically pretty much no Pre-January 1st 1918 Winchester’s saw service in Europe, only Stateside. The Post-January 1st, 1918 Winchester’s weren’t approved until June 1918.