[Lynn Eades]

I'll start this with "I know nothing about the history of what actually happened",Apart from respecting Ed for his expertise in this area, It just make sense, what he says. Basically the military stands and falls on disapline. I Imagine that "Standing orders" precluded a soldier from carrying anything but his issued kit. If Thompsons were not issued, then were did they come from? about the only way to have one is to take it from the enemy, after he had taken it from his enemy.
I find it annoying when guys want to hang every kind of 50 cal browning all over every carrier. Yes, I'm sure these things happened occasionally, but in the overall scheme of things, as Ed says, these events are anomalies.
I see it in the best of museums,(I havent been to many, but one doesn't have to visit many) where things are displayed, perported to be the truth, but in reality they are not.
On the other side of this Gerry, our fathers and grandfathers fought, so that you could freely exercise your artistic license.
Do that which the man in the mirror is comfortable with.