Just wondering if anyone could answer this. Towards the end of the film, as the Japanese soldiers are storming the island, one of them is carrying and then fires what appears to be a assault rifle that looks very much like a German Sturmgewehr 44. I find this odd being that type of weapon wasn't even available till 1943 at the very earliest. Anyone know what it really is, and why it looks so much like a more modern day assault rifle?
shareMany of these old movies made during the war had similar weapons for our enemies, especially the Japanese. Remember, Wake Island was made only months after it fell and there were no stocks of captured arms that Hollywood could call on, as they did later in the war or in the post-war era. I've seen the same weapon in more than one movie and it suspiciously looks like a modified Thompson sub-machinegun with the foregrip removed and a few other cosmetic devices attached.
shareI was just looking at the scene in the film again, and you are absolutely right! It's a Thompson with the foregrip and buttstock removed and a Banana magazine added. Good eye!
I also laugh at the gibberish that the Japanese officer speaks right after the above scene. The pseudo Japanese they have him speaking sounds like he is trying to cough up a hairball.
The gibberish is even worse in some of the Warner Brother movies depicting Nazis. There was one Errol Flynn movie about Norwegian underground fighters and the German officers were speaking something I can only call Gerglish. It "sounded" German but you could understand every word and I don't speak German!
shareI assume you're referring to "Edge of Darkness" (1943)....That was typical of Warner's at the time...Try watching "Action in the North Atlantic" (1943) with Bogey and listening to the German sailors...Pretty easy to understand...That and "Desperate Journey" (1942)....Basically a live action cartoon....I can see Bugs Bunny in Errol Flynn's role.........Between him and his cohorts I can see them singlehandedly winning the war by themselves!
shareI was just looking at the scene in the film again, and you are absolutely right! It's a Thompson with the foregrip and buttstock removed and a Banana magazine added. Good eye!The Japanese officer who kills the radioman for certain had a Colt, probably a New Service 1917 Model in 45 ACP.
I also laugh at the gibberish that the Japanese officer speaks right after the above scene. The pseudo Japanese they have him speaking sounds like he is trying to cough up a hairball.