'you can't carry 3 guns unless you got 3 hands'

You stick one rifle down your pants.

I have read in many interviews and in veteran's journals, that soldiers would try to get as much firepower as possible. EX Battle of the Bulge. Many of the infantry were sent in to the Ardenners(really bad spelling error. Forgot how to spell it) Forest, with very little ammo. They would get as much firepower as they could so that they would be able to repel back the German forces.

-head

The M1A1 Garand? Just M1 guys. Carbines were for Cpls, or engineers, etc. Thompsons were seen in action by corporals also, but usually that included you having to pick one up and taking his ammunition.

Why would you need intensely trained marksmen to use a Thompson? It's not like they're going to use it as a sniper rifle.

Pull a gun off of a dead G.I. and who was gonna tell you that you weren't allowed to use it? I've seen men of all ranks with all different types of weapons in the war. If you were assigned an M1 Garand, you could very easily run out of ammo and strip a dead man for his M1 Carbine or a Thompson and grab his ammo as well and no one would have the time or desire to stop you.

Much like enlisted men in the Pacific getting their hands on pistols... no one would stop you if you had one

Ok, seems to be a lot of misconceptions here. Agarza, you seem to have come to the closest of how a infantry squad was composed in WWII, but everyone else seems really off. I'm no expert, just read lightly on the subject.

This is an excellent reference: http://world.guns.ru/main-e.htm

First off, yes, only 1 primary weapon was issued per soldier (obviously).

Pistols could be purchased by enlisted men, and were standard issue for officers.

The M1 Garand was the standard issue rifle. As people have pointed out, the idea of an assault rifle wasn't present in WWII (Germany began to develope it near the end, but it was too late by then). An assualt rifle uses a cartridge in between the power of a pistol round and a rifle round. This allows controllable automatic fire, good manuaveriblity, and effective use out to about 300m or so.

With no AR, a WWII squad had to have a mix of weapons that were good for close combat (thompson/grease gun), Long range combat (Garand) and intermediate range combat (M1 Carbine, which also served as a "defense weapon" to non-combat troops). The thompson was not issued exclusively to higher ranking infantry. And being a "excellent marksman" was not a requirement (thompson was only effective out to about 50m anyway). The BAR functioned as a squad automatic weapon. In other words, a mobile light machine gun. Used to make the enemy keep his head down while the rest of the team manuavered to kill them. The BAR is thought of as an ugly compromise in reality. While reliable and accurate, its magazine capacity (20 rounds) wasn't enough for it to be an effective light machinegun and its weight (~20 lbs.) was too much for it to effectively move with the rest of the squad.

Snipers were often attached to infantry at the platoon or company level. This doctrine is generally regaurded as inferior to the German doctrine which had snipers operating independently of main-force infantry, allowing for greater stealth.

In reality, a US WWII squad was composed of 12 men. In theory, this was the basic unit of infantry warfare, they were supposed to work as one. It was somewhat unweildy at 12 men, and the US Marines unofficially broke down squads into fireteams of 6 men to make up for it. No machineguns were issued at the squad level.

Contrast this with the germans using the MG34 and later the MG42, with their incredible rates of fire as the heart of their infantry squads. In a 1:1 engagement, an MG34/MG42 would readily win fire superiority (more firepower = enemy cannot shoot back) and supress the enemy, allowing for flanking by the supporting riflemen.

Modern day US infantry squads are composed of 9 men and 2 fireteams.
1x Squad leader
2x M249 SAW gunners
2x Fireteam Leaders
2x M203 grenadiers
2x Riflemen

A squad designated marksman (equiped with a scoped rifle, but not truly a sniper) is sometimes assigned to a squad as well.

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