M-1 rifle

Along with the M-1 rifle he carried across Europe, he kept a small 35-millimeter Argus C3 camera that he had bought as a teenager.

“He carried his M-1 rifle and his typewriter,” Gerard Murphy said.

"That the boy had to be as tall as an M-1 rifle to become a soldier. Maybe about 10 years old."

However, he managed to make it ashore with the dozen mortar rounds he had - twice as many as he was supposed to carry, along with his battle pack, M-1 rifle and .45-caliber sidearm.

But as a navy corpsman, Bradley would typically be armed with a sidearm, not an M-1 rifle, and he would have no need for wire cutters.