armoury
ICS M1 GARAND
“THE UNITED STATES WAS THE ONLY COUNTRY TO EQUIP ITS TROOPS WITH AN
AUTO-LOADING RIFLE AS THE STANDARD INFANTRY WEAPON OF WWII, AND IT GAVE
AMERICAN TROOPS A TREMENDOUS ADVANTAGE IN FIREPOWER, LEADING GENERAL
GEORGE PATTON TO CALL THE M1 GARAND, “THE GREATEST BATTLE IMPLEMENT EVER
DEVISED.””
Taiwanese airsoft manufacturer ICS have a super version of
this for all players and collectors to enjoy!
THE FIRST ISSUE SEMI-AUTO!
At the back end of the 19th Century the Maxim Gun was
creating quite a stir amongst military users around the
world and firearms designers scratched their collective
heads on how to apply the auto-loading principle to rifles
and pistols. Because of the low power of its small bullet,
the pistol was relatively easy and semi-automatic handguns
began to appear quire quickly - but applying Maxim’s
principle to a military rifle was much more difficult due to
the the power of the cartridge.
The use of the machine gun and in the latter parts of
WWI, the sub-machine gun, taught the value devastating
nature of heavy infantry firepower and in 1918 U.S.
Ordnance began to search for an auto-loading infantry
rifle. Over the next ten years many
inventors
submitted designs for testing,
however, none proved acceptable.
If they could stand up to the punishment, they were too
heavy and if they were light enough to be carried easily (a
relative term for the “PBI” who had to carry it!), they were
necessarily of small calibre.
However, one of the more promising designs was
submitted by a young, Canadian-born inventor named John
Cantius Garand, who was quickly employed by Springfield
Armory in Massachusetts to develop his rifle further.
After many stop/starts with his original design, Garand’s
improved rifle tapped off the propellant gases of the fired
bullet and used it to cycle the rifle. This design eventually
beat out all the competition and was adopted as the
standard U.S. infantry rifle in 1936.
Mass production of the M1 Garand began at Springfield
Armory in 1937 and the first rifles were delivered to the
Army in 1938. In 1940 a second line was opened by the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company who were contracted
to manufacture the rifle. Now fully on a “war footing” both
Springfield and Winchester operated around the clock,
producing more than 4,000,000 M1 rifles by the end of the
war in 1945!
The United States was the only country to equip
its troops with an auto-loading rifle as the standard
infantry weapon of WWII, and it gave American troops
a tremendous advantage in firepower, leading General
George Patton to call the M1 Garand, “The greatest battle
implement ever devised.”
But this was not the end of the story.
Following WWII many M1 Garand rifles were mothballed
and put into storage but when North Korea attacked South
Korea in 1950, M1 rifle production was resumed. Although
the primary source remained Springfield Armory, two new
manufacturers were contracted, International Harvester
Corporation and Harrington & Richardson Arms and it is
estimated a further 1,500,000 new M1s were produced
between 1952 and 1957.
Of course, in the early 1950’s U.S. Ordnance had already
begun the development of a new infantry rifle, one that
would have a larger capacity magazine and selective fire
capability and after much trial and error (and no little
controversy) an updated M1 was adopted in 1957 as the
M14 Rifle. The Garand
is still used by drill teams
and military honour guards
to this day though and it is also
widely
used by civilians for hunting and target shooting and has
become a prized military collectible, so much so that under
a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S.
Army and the Civilian Marksmanship Program, M1 Garand
sales are now regulated.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE “PING”!
I am extremely lucky as, during my time living in the USA, I
actually had chance to shoot a real Garand on the range a
couple of times and let me tell you that this big old .30-06
is actually a joy to shoot and, quite frankly, the rifle was
way ahead of its time!
Unlike modern rifles it doesn’t have a detachable box
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