M1 Garand

Description

The American M1 Garand self loading rifle (SLR) was the standard issue rifle of the U.S. armed forces throughout World War 2 and the 1950/53 Korean War.

Introduced in the mid-late 1930’s as a replacement for their somewhat antiquated M1903 Springfield bolt action rifle, the M1 was the invention of John Garand, a French Canadian working for the Springfield Armory.

He began on a concept design for a gas operated system in the early 1920’s, however many years of unsuccessful military trials followed and it wasn’t until September 1937 that the M1 officially entered into service. However, production was incredibly slow and at the outbreak of the U.S. involvement in World War 2, the Springfield Armory was only able to produce 600 rifles a day. As a result licenses to other arms manufacturers such as Winchester were granted.

Unlike the 5 round M1903, the M1 holds 8 rounds of .30-06 Springfield ammunition, housed in a metallic ‘en bloc’ clip. However, unlike bolt action rifles, where the loader strips the cartridges from the clip and feeds them into an internal magazine, the M1 cartridge clip is itself inserted into the magazine. Once the last round is fired, the clip would be ejected upwards, creating a distinctive ‘ping’ noise.

The M1 was a highly effective rifle, which could produce a barrage of rapid fire on opposing forces (Japanese, German and North Korean), who were all predominantly still using bolt action rifles.

Eventually the M1 was replaced in service by the M14, which was essentially a selective fire/magazine fed upgrade. However the M1 was still used for decades to come throughout the globe by regular and irregular forces and examples still appear in an obscure civil wars or terrorist weapons seizure.