User blog comment:Cfp3157/Season 1 Episode 7: Communist Party of China vs Marine Raiders/@comment-3582167-20120724204544

Well first of lets examine the melee weapons: The CPOC has the Model 1937 Bayonet and while the Bayonet has the greater reach and can turn the rifle into a spear so it has multifunction as well. I also have to quote El Alamein's comment about his entry on the Marine Raider Stiletto. "However, the Raider Stiletto is a commando knife, built for a specific function (heavy forward thrusts), and I like that because the Raiders are trained to use the knife in one specific way." The reason I quote this is because I know a former Marine who wasn't a Raider from WWII who learned Hand to Hand Combat from Robert Ryan, Actor, & Close Combat Drill Instructer Extraordinaire. He was taught by Robert Ryan to use the KA-BAR with heavy underhanded foward thrusts like the Marine Radiers were taught to use their Stilettos so it seems that Marines in general are taught to use the knife in one way. Also let it be known that he said never come out overhanded (Icepick Grip) with the KA-BAR. But I digress I wanted to give a real life example from someone I know even though the example in question was taught with a different knife pattern, it renforces El Alamein's claim that, "All Marines are taught to use the knife one way," but I still have to give the edge to the Model 1937 Bayonet because it more durable and when affixed to the rifle it could impale a Marine Raider and toss him of and to the ground in a head on attack well before he ever touched the Chinese Soldier with the Stiletto. The only way for a Marine Raider to counter this would be to Sneak Up Behined the Chinese Soldier and Slip the Stiletto between his ribs without being detected. My Edge: The CPOC's Model 1937 Bayonet. Because it has the better reach and a Marine Raider could only attack from behind a frontal assault would be suicide.

Now lets examine the Close-Range Weapons i.e. the pistols: The pistols both take .45 ACP so they are equal in terms of round type. A Marine who I had for a bus driver who was an "Ammo Humper" which is USMC Slang for Supply and Logistics Battalion(s) told me that he was told in boot camp at the firing range while training with the M1911A1 that if your target is more than 28 meters away than don't use your pistol beacuse it won't hit the target at that distance so I don't know if that is because of the round's size or if it's a characteristic of the M1911A1 as an individual weapon and not the round and as El Alamein said, "Chinese copies if other weapons are unreliable and sloppy." The chinese copys of the German Muaser and Kar98 K are like the Japanese Type 100, (a Japanese copy of the Sten SMG and MP-18 SMG), and the Japanese Type 99, (a Japanese Copy of the Bren LMG), and so the Chinese Type 17 can't hold up to the M1911A in reliablity and quality and so my Edge for Close-Range Combat goes to the Marine Raider's M1911A1.

Now let's take a look at the Mid-Range Weapons the Thompson has a larger round than the MP-18 and is more modern than the MP-18 by a few years. It's larger round has the power to penitrate the unamored human skull all the way through something the 9mm just can't replicate due to smaller size, and less power. My Edge for Mid-Range Combat goes to the Marine Raider's Thompson.

Now let's see about the Long-Range Weapons the Chinese Chaing Kai-Shek seems to be a Chinese copy of the Kar98 K so following what I said above in the comment about Type 17 about unreliabilty of copy weapons, I consider it an unspoken rule that copy weapons are generally poorer quality than the originals they are copyed from. The Springfield 1908 has seen action from WW1-Korea finally being replaced in 'Nam by the M40 Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle Chances are though that the M40 didn't come out until mid to late 'Nam so the Springfield 1908 may have seen action early to mid Nam' you just can't beat that service record. My Edge for Long-Range Weapons goes to the Marine Raider's Springfield 1908.

As for the Explosives the Pinaple Grenade has less of a chance of rolling than a modern M67 Grenade but it still can roll somthing the Model 24 won't do. However I'm pretty sure the MK. 2 has a bigger blast so my edge goes to the Marine Raider's MK. 2 Frag Grenade as the chances of rolling back towards the user are slim to none unless you roll it up a 90 degree angle.

My Victorous Team would be the Marine Raiders. I'm sorry for chewing your ears of with the personal exapmle I just thought it would help renforce what El Alamein said about Marines all being taught to use the knife in the same way.