Last year, Guns Magazine published a rather detailed article on the M1 Garand. I will note that the name of the weapon rhymes with "grand"--no one in the military pronounced it like the designer's name (which rhymes with "errand")--and I'm disappointed with the firearms historians that want to eliminate from our lexicon how our troops actually pronounced the name of the weapon.
In any event, the article is beautifully illustrated with some striking photographs of an exemplar used for the article together with mechanical drawings and photographs from the World War II era. The article is split into three sections with each section from a different author (or set of authors). The first part is an ode to the rifle and a bit about how it operates. The second part offers some information on its roll out in WWII. And the third part is reminiscence from a soldier that used one in WWII.
Of course, the story of the Garand did not end with World War II. It was still the primary combat rifle of the United States during the Korean War and through most of the 1950s. Even after the U.S. Army and Marines had adopted the M-14 and M-16 rifles, the Garand was still found in the armories of Reserve and National Guard units until even the late 1970s. The guardsmen involved in the Kent State Shooting of May 4, 1970, were armed with Garands (you can see a couple photos here from that date showing the National Guard carrying Garands). And, of course, it was widely distributed to allies after World War II, some of whom continued to use the weapon into the 1980s and '90s.
More:
- "The M1 Garand & The Cold War"--The Armory Life.
- "M1 Rifle Of The Korean War"--Small Arms Review.
- "The History of the M1 Garand — From World War II to Korea"--The M1 Garand Rifle.
- "The History of the M1 Garand — The M1 Garand After 1957"--The M1 Garand Rifle.
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