The M1 Garand or M1 rifle is a semi-automatic rifle that was the service rifle of the U.S. Army and United States Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War.
The rifle is chambered for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge and is named after its Canadian-American designer, John Garand. It was the first standard-issue autoloading rifle for the United States. By most accounts, the M1 rifle performed well. General George S. Patton called it "the greatest battle implement ever devised". The M1 replaced the (bolt-action) M1903 Springfield as the U.S. service rifle in 1936, and was itself replaced by the (selective-fire) M14 rifle on 26 March 1958.
Pronunciation Sources differ on the pronunciation of the M1 Garand. Some, such as General Julian Hatcher's The Book of the Garand (1948), give , identical to the pronunciation of John Garand's surname. However, a 1952 issue of Armed Forces Talk, a periodical published by the U.S. Department of Defense, gives the pronunciation as , saying "popular usage has placed the accent on the second syllable, so that the rifle has become the 'guh-RAND. American Rifleman magazine, while acknowledging as the pronunciation favored by U.S. servicemen, deemed either pronunciation valid.
History Development
Quebec-born Garand went to work at the United States Army's Springfield Armory and began working on a .30 caliber primer actuated blowback Model 1919 prototype. In 1924, twenty-four rifles, identified as "M1922s", were built at Springfield. At Fort Benning during 1925, they were tested against models by Berthier, Hatcher-Bang, Thompson, and Pedersen, the latter two being delayed blowback types. This led to a further trial of an improved "M1924" Garand against the Thompson, ultimately producing an inconclusive report. As a result, the Ordnance Board ordered a .30-06 Garand variant. In March 1927, the cavalry board reported trials among the Thompson, Garand, and '03 Springfield had not led to a clear winner. This led to a gas-operated .276 (7 mm) model (patented by Garand on 12 April 1930).
In early 1928, both the infantry and cavalry boards ran trials with the .276 Pedersen T1 rifle, calling it "highly promising" (despite its use of waxed ammunition,Fitzsimons, op. cit., Volume 19, p. 2092, "Pedersen", describes the ammunition as "lubricated". shared by the Thompson). On 13 August 1928, a semiautomatic rifle board (SRB) carried out joint Army, Navy, and Marine Corps trials among the .30 Thompson, both cavalry and infantry versions of the T1 Pedersen, "M1924" Garand, and .256 Bang, and on 21 September, the board reported no clear winner. The .30 Garand, however, was dropped in favor of the .276.
Further tests by the SRB in July 1929, which included rifle designs by Colt–Browning, Garand, Holek, Pedersen, Rheinmetall, Thompson, and an incomplete one by White, led to a recommendation that work on the (dropped) .30 gas-operated Garand be resumed, and a T1E1 was ordered 14 November 1929.
Twenty gas-operated .276 T3E2 Garands were made and competed with T1 Pedersen rifles in early 1931. The .276 Garand was the clear winner of these trials. The .30 caliber Garand was also tested, in the form of a single T1E1, but was withdrawn with a cracked bolt on 9 October 1931. A 4 January 1932 meeting recommended adoption of the .276 caliber and production of approximately 125 T3E2s. Meanwhile, Garand redesigned his bolt and his improved T1E2 rifle was retested. The day after the successful conclusion of this test, Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur personally disapproved any caliber change, in part because there were extensive existing stocks of .30 M1 ball ammunition. On 25 February 1932, Adjutant General John B. Shuman, speaking for the Secretary of War, ordered work on the rifles and ammunition in .276 caliber cease immediately and completely, and all resources be directed toward identification and correction of deficiencies in the Garand .30 caliber.
On 3 August 1933, the T1E2 became the "semi-automatic rifle, caliber 30, M1". In May 1934, 75 M1s went to field trials; 50 went to infantry, 25 to cavalry units. Numerous problems were reported, forcing the rifle to be modified, yet again, before it could be recommended for service and cleared for procurement on 7 November 1935, then standardized 9 January 1936. The first production model was successfully proof-fired, function-fired, and fired for accuracy on 21 July 1937.
Production difficulties delayed deliveries to the Army until September 1937. Machine production began at Springfield Armory that month at a rate of ten rifles per day, and reached an output of 100 per day within two years. Despite going into production status, design issues were not at an end. The barrel, gas cylinder, and front sight assembly were redesigned and entered production in early 1940. Existing "gas-trap" rifles were recalled and retrofitted, mirroring problems with the earlier M1903 Springfield rifle that also had to be recalled and reworked about three years into production and foreshadowing rework of the M16 rifle at a similar point in its development. Production of the Garand increased in 1940 despite these difficulties, reaching 600 a day by 10 January 1941, and the Army was fully equipped by the end of 1941. After the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Winchester was awarded an "educational" production contract for 65,000 rifles, with deliveries beginning in 1943.
Service use
About 5.4 million M1 Garands were made during World War II. They were used by every branch of the United States military. The rifle generally performed well. The typical opponent of a US soldier during World War II was usually armed with a slower-firing bolt-action rifle (e.g., the Karabiner 98k for Germany, the Carcano M1891 for Italy, and the Type 38 or Type 99 Arisaka rifle for Japan). The effect of faster-firing infantry small arms in general soon stimulated both Allied and Axis forces to greatly increase their issue of semi- and fully automatic firearms then in production, and to develop new types of infantry firearms.
Many M1s were repaired or rebuilt after World War II. During the Korean War, the Department of Defense placed two contracts for new ones. Springfield Armory ramped up production, but two new contracts were awarded. From 1953 to 56, International Harvester produced 337,623 M1s. Harrington & Richardson also produced them.. Springfield Armory produced a final, very small lot of M1s in early 1957, using finished components already on hand. Beretta also produced Garands using Winchester tooling.
In 1939, the British Army looked at the M1 as a possible replacement for its bolt-action –Enfield No.1 Mk. III, but decided against it as by January 1940 the Birmingham Small Arms Company was already preparing production of the Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk 1. However, surplus M1 rifles were provided as foreign aid to American allies, including South Korea, West Germany, Italy, Japan, Denmark, Greece, Turkey, Iran, South Vietnam, the Philippines, etc. Most Garands shipped to allied nations were predominantly manufactured by International Harvester Corporation during the period of 1953–1956, and second from Springfield Armory from all periods.
Some Garands were still being used by the United States into the Vietnam War in 1963; despite the M14's official adoption in 1958, it was not until 1965 that the changeover from the M1 Garand was fully completed in the active-duty component of the Army (with the exception of the sniper variants, which were introduced in World War II and saw action in the Korean and Vietnam War). The Garand remained in service with the Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and the Navy into the early 1970s, being superseded by the M16A1 rifle for Army National Guard and Reserve component use starting in 1973. The South Korean army was using M1 Garands in the Vietnam War until the late 1960s.
Due to widespread United States military assistance as well as their durability, M1 Garands have also been found in use in recent conflicts such as with the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some military drill teams still use the M1 rifle, including the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Team, the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Honor Guard, the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, almost all Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and some Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) teams of all branches of the U.S. military. It is also used by the drill team of His Majesty the King's Guard of Norway.
Design details
Features
The M1 rifle is a .30 caliber, gas-operated, eight-shot clip-fed, semi-automatic rifle. It is long and it weighs about .
The M1's safety catch is located at the front of the trigger guard, easily operated by the trigger finger. It is engaged when it is pressed rearward into the trigger guard, and disengaged when it is pushed forward and is protruding outside of the trigger guard.
The M1 Garand was designed for simple assembly and disassembly to facilitate field maintenance. It can be field stripped (broken down) without tools in just a few seconds.
The rifle has an iron sight line consisting of rear receiver aperture sight protected by sturdy "ears" calibrated for in increments. The bullet drop compensation is set by turning the range knob to the appropriate range setting. The bullet drop compensation/range knob can be adjusted by setting the rear sight elevation pinion. The elevation pinion can be fine adjusted in approximately one MOA increments. The aperture sight is also able to correct for wind drift operated by turning a windage knob that moves the sight in approximately one MOA increments. The windage lines on the receiver to indicate the windage setting are four MOA apart. The front sighting element consists of a wing-guard-protected front post.
During World War II the M1 rifle's semiautomatic operation gave United States infantrymen a significant advantage in firepower and shot-to-shot recovery time over enemy infantrymen armed primarily with bolt-action rifles. The semi-automatic operation and reduced recoil allowed soldiers to fire eight rounds as quickly as they could pull the trigger, without having to move their hands on the rifle and therefore disrupt their firing position and point of aim. The Garand's fire rate, in the hands of a trained soldier, averaged 40–50 accurate shots per minute at a range of 300 yards (270 m). "At ranges over 500 yards (460 m), a battlefield target is hard for the average rifleman to hit. Therefore, 500 yards (460 m) is considered the maximum effective range, even though the rifle is accurate at much greater ranges."
En bloc clip
The M1 rifle is fed by a reversible en bloc clip which holds eight rounds of .30-06 Springfield ammunition. When the last cartridge is fired, the rifle ejects the clip and locks the bolt open. The M1 is then ready to reload. Once the clip is inserted, the bolt snaps forward on its own as soon as thumb pressure is released from the top round of the clip, chambering a round and leaving it ready to fire.
Contrary to widespread misconception, partially expended or full clips can be easily ejected from the rifle by means of the clip latch button. It is also possible to load single cartridges into a partially loaded clip while the clip is still in the magazine, but this requires both hands and a bit of practice. In reality, this procedure was rarely performed in combat, as the danger of getting debris inside the action along with the cartridges increased the chances of malfunction. Instead, it was much easier and quicker to simply manually eject the clip, and insert a fresh one,"FM 23-100", Department of the Army (1943) which is how the rifle was originally designed to be operated. Later, special clips holding two (8+2=10 for target shooting) or five rounds (to meet hunting regulations) became available on the civilian market, as well as a single-loading device which stays in the rifle when the bolt locks back.