Unidentified soldier holds a flamethrower during a training exercise. Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 1942. Photo by Frank S. Errigo
2d 11m ago by lemmy.world/u/setsneedtofeed in historyphotos@piefed.social
Information on this photo is thin and conflicting. I've gone with Getty Images as the most trustworthy source. Some other dubious sources (reddit and Facebook) list the photo as either of a US Army soldier or of a US Marine with no citation. The uniform is a USMC M1942 utility uniform rather than the US Army in the pacific's camouflaged one-piece utility suit, however given the mismash of uniform pieces seen going into the pacific, I find that not particularly persuasive of anything. If the photo was taken at Fort Belvoir, then it would point to a US Army soldier as that was a US Army training ground in WW2.
The flamethrower is the older M1. These would be replaced by M1A1s and then eventually the M2 family of flamethrowers, which the US would use until near the end of the 1970s.
Wow... great photo, and for some reason it seems so... contemporary.
Did the face cammo wrong. Dark is for the high points like nose, cheek bones and chin. Light is for the low points like eyes and cheeks.
I'll tell him.
Thanks, I didn't want to break it to him.
I don't think that's a soldier I'll let the crayon crunchers decide if he's one of them
If there's any better sourcing on this image than I've found, I would like to add it. My best source says this is a soldier and from Fort Belvoir (a U.S. Army training center in WW2). I've addressed that the camouflage pattern was used by the Army and Marines, and that branches wore (the very similar) camo uniforms from other branches, so that doesn't override the Getty description for me.
Fort Belvoir has a very long history and my current HQ is located there. I wonder if they consolidated flamethrower training there like military working dog training has been consolidated at Lackland AFB.
I have found no source that says that. I've found only sources of USMC flamethrower training happening in the pacific itself. If you can find a clearer training pipeline for USMC WW2 flamethrowers I can put it in the thread opening.
That is the M42 pattern used in the Pacific theater. https://www.usww2uniforms.com/PE2EarlyPacificCamo.html