The Toolmaker’s Stinger Method: The Controversial MG That Cracked Iwo Jima Defenses

Описание: On February 19, 1945, Corporal Tony Stein stepped onto the black sands of Iwo Jima carrying a weapon that wasn't supposed to exist. The "Stinger" machine gun—built from salvaged aircraft parts, modified with scrap metal, and never officially approved by the Marine Corps—could fire 1,200 rounds per minute. In the next 10 days, this former toolmaker from Dayton, Ohio would assault fortified pillboxes, make 8 ammunition runs under fire, evacuate wounded Marines on his back, and single-handedly change how we think about infantry firepower. But the weapon that saved dozens of lives would never be adopted by the military, and Tony Stein would never leave the island alive.
This is the untold story of how desperation, mechanical genius, and raw courage created a weapon the Marine Corps tried to forget—and why it mattered on the most heavily defended 8 square miles in the Pacific War.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - The Weapon That Shouldn't Exist
1:15 - From Factory Worker to Golden Gloves Champion
4:42 - How a Toolmaker Joined the Marines
7:28 - The Problem With Standard Machine Guns
10:35 - Birth of the Stinger: Building a Weapon From Scrap
14:18 - Iwo Jima: Kuribayashi's Fortress of Death
18:45 - Green Beach One: First Minutes of Hell
22:30 - Eight Trips Through Enemy Fire
26:15 - The Cost of Carrying the Stinger
28:40 - March 1st: The Final Mission
30:25 - Why the Military Never Adopted the Stinger

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BIBLIOGRAPHY / SOURCES:

Medal of Honor Citation: Corporal Tony Stein, USMC. Official U.S. Marine Corps Records, 1945.
After Action Reports: 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, Iwo Jima Operation, February-March 1945. National Archives.

Alexander, Joseph H. Closing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima. Marines in World War II Commemorative Series. Washington, D.C.: Marine Corps Historical Center, 1994.
Bradley, James, and Ron Powers. Flags of Our Fathers. New York: Bantam Books, 2000.
Hammel, Eric. Iwo Jima: Portrait of a Battle. Minneapolis: Zenith Press, 2006.
Newcomb, Richard F. Iwo Jima. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965.
Ross, Bill D. Iwo Jima: Legacy of Valor. New York: Vanguard Press, 1985.
Wheeler, Richard. Iwo. New York: Lippincott & Crowell, 1980.

Canfield, Bruce N. U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War II. Lincoln, RI: Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 1994.
Rottman, Gordon L. U.S. Marine Corps World War II Order of Battle: Ground and Air Units in the Pacific War, 1939-1945. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Rottman, Gordon L. World War II Infantry Tactics: Squad and Platoon. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2004.

Japanese Defense & Strategy:

Kakehashi, Kumiko. Letters from Iwo Jima. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007.
Kakehashi, Kumiko. So Sad to Fall in Battle: An Account of War Based on General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's Letters from Iwo Jima. New York: Presidio Press, 2007.