Hallo!
WWI trench use of the M1897 "trench gun" was fairly rare. But they demonstrated their value, although the Germans protested that the shotguns were a violation of the rules of international warfare and threatened to execute any American caught with one. The Americans responded with threats of immediate retaliation and the whole issue was dropped except for sporadic propaganda outbursts.
After the war, they an dplain barrel riot guns remained in Army and Marine inventory. IIRC, an inventory done in 1939 or 1940 found 21,187 shotguns on hand.. althoug most were long barreled shotguns used for training airmen to shoot by trap shooting. Imn 1940 the Ordnance Department set out to determine what sources for shotguns were available aside from Winchester, but were surprised that only Winchester M1897's were available in any quantity.
In Aaugust 1941 they determined that five models were potentially available two of which were the Wincehster M1897 and M1912. Procurement of shotguns for combat, trianing, and sport began in November of 1914 but the batches were mostly Winchester M1897's and Ithaca Model 37 trench guns, and Remington Model 11 semi-auto shotguns. The largest production started in 1943.
Army tactics in Europe saw limited use, mostly for POW guards, but the Marines in the Pacific really loved them, especially with buck-shot rounds.
It would make sense to look to the more odern M1912's, but I beleive there were enough
M1897's in inventory and initally commercially available in 1941/1942 so that there was no need for the "Peacetime Army" togo outside of what was already on hand until 1942/1943 and then the '97's still dominated numbers over the Ithaca, Remingotn, and Savage competition...
