M1 Garand

World War II American Military
#81

Originally Posted by Deaf Smith View Post
I still wish they had just made a 10 round detachable box mag. It would have been simpler to make and it’s not like the idea wasn’t known at that time! But for the life if me using the method the Carcano used is not a good method! After all, we did have the BAR to give us an example.

There were a lot of M1’s modified with 10- and 20-round magazines because the 8-round clip didn’t last very long in combat; the legacy continued with the M-14 of 1957. Not sure why Garand didn’t conceive of a detachable magazine for his rifle–the SMLE introduced the idea in the 1890’s

#82

The bolt does not release and go forward upon mere insertion of the clip.

I own a Garand and it does release upon insertion of a clip. Mine also does not need to be slapped. If you have a good tilt test without any rubbing or interference, and you clips are loaded properly it should function properly.

#83

Keep the butt tight to the shoulder, then no more bruising.

#84

Really? What did they do on D-Day+1?

#85

The Germans had been largely defeated by then due to America’s appearance on the Western Front the day before, but a few valiant German soldiers with very acute hearing charged through the beachhead and drowned trying to reach the Allied ships giving out sonar pings somewhere around the Bay of Biscay.

When news of this reached Admiral Doenitz he contemplated suicide as he realised that he might not have lost the submarine war if he had crewed submarines with soldiers with ears like Volkswagen doors instead of sailors who took up less room.

#86

Why would they leave prepared defensive positions to charge someone who could reload quickly and catch them on open ground?

You’re lucky the bullet didn’t go into your arm.

You’re supposed to point the muzzle away from you. :smiley:

#87

Causing brain damage, apparently… :slight_smile:

#88

Excessive trauma, maybe…

The North Koreans learned the same thing about the Garand’s clip making that ping as it left the chamber, but we discovered that it would make the same sound if you dropped it on the ground–so we’d trick 'em into poking their heads up to shoot at us by throwing an empty clip on the ground, while a guy was standing by with a fully-loaded rifle

#89

Dang, that’s almost like Alvin York and his Turkey Gobble to get the Germans to raise their heads.

Actually guys, go get about 5 Garand rifles and have them fire say one shot every 3 seconds in random order. Now you will find the noise generated from such a conflagration of guns will pretty much drowns out this ‘ping’.

And while you are at it, have the ones listening fire some 7.92 Mausers while listening for that ‘ping’. I bet it gets mighty hard to hear that ‘ping’ with all the ringing in their ears.

There MIGHT have been a case or two where at very close quarters a ‘ping’ gave away a GI and that GI didn’t have a buddy with a BAR or M1 Carbine or Thompson, or even a good shovel handy.

But I doubt it.

And there really were cases where 5 shot Ariskas or Mausers ran out of ammo and GIs with Garands plugged them. Just read George John’s book, “Shots Fired in Anger” about what the Garand was worth compaired to a Ariska. And the Ariska is basicly a Mauser.

Deaf

#90

Factor in things like tank engines or artillery support shrieking overhead, and I’m surprised that most veterans didn’t go deaf

#91

I have a friend who was in the Navy. He was on Destroyers. He nearly IS deaf! Those 5 inchers are loud.

I am always suprised when I see films of mortar men firing and only a few stick their fingers in their ears. And I bet quad .50s might make you dizy!

I hope the U.S. Army uses Peltor or Ridgeline ear muffs that allow normal hearing yet block out gunfire.

Deaf

#92

I merged this thread with another, older thread from the archives as I see a lot of the same stuff being discussed here. Especially the annoying History/Military Channel fodder about the infamous “I’m empty, come and shoot me” M1-“clang.” I would think that this has to be a bit of a legend, that is there’s something to it–but yet I’d find it hard to believe that a German soldier is going to be listening for the clang of a recently emptied M1 over the deafening roar of massed small arms fire, and possibly more. And unless a soldier, perhaps a paratroop, became isolated, I’m pretty sure other American soldiers would be there to Tommy-gun any such soldier stupid enough to be chasing clangs…

#93

I am always suprised when I see films of mortar men firing and only a few stick their fingers in their ears. And I bet quad .50s might make you dizy!

I hope the U.S. Army uses Peltor or Ridgeline ear muffs that allow normal hearing yet block out gunfire.

Firing a .50 isn’t so bad when you’re behind it, with earplugs inserted. Standing next to it is probably fun–the gun kicks up a dust cloud in front of it!

#94

Black Hawk Down had a real good scene where they fired M249 and M240s and one was deafened.

I remember in the show, ‘Red Dawn’ where the good guys had this T70 tank they were trying to disable (I think it was a T70) and when it fired it’s 120mm, it nearly blew then off the hill with the muzzle blast. Rather realistic I’d say!

And in ‘True Lies’ where the terrorist fired a Stinger at the jets, from inside the van, and blew one of their own out the back (it was realistic, sort of…)

And remember when Dirty Harry grabbed his partner out from behind a LAW in ‘The Enforcer’ before she got fried (Tye Daily I think her name was.) That was ok to.

And my favorite, in ‘Rambo II’, where Sly fires a LAW through the helocopters plexiglass and didn’t even harm a hair on the ex-POWS in the back. I sure hope some terrorist watch that one and later tries that stunt.

But back to the ping, no except for a possible one-on-many encounter with the Garand guy being the ‘one’, I can’t see this happening, and even then, the Garand shooter can still reload pretty fast if the clip is on his harness or sling.

Deaf

#95

Good stuff there. The tanks in Red Dawn were T-72’s, which were the SU’s MBT for the 70’s and early 80’s-although by the time the war took place, the Soviets were also fielding the T-80 (BTW, Red Dawn is a movie, not a show)

As for one guy with a garand against many, it might have happened on D-Day when we had paratroops scattered all across the battlefield, but even then I think it would be rare for one guy to not run into at least somebody else out there. Probably one of the things Hollywood jumped on for drama or whatnot

#96

My Great-uncle was on Iwo. He told my Dad that the “tommy gun” was great, till it jammed, then he went back to the M1 Garand. My Dad said that was just about the only thing my Great-uncle said about the war. He never told me about it, I didn’t know he was on Iwo till last year.

#97

Cool. My grandfather was in France in 44/45. He was artillery, playing with 155’s–talk about noise!

#98

I know I’ve read somewhere about GIs, after firing one round, using empty en-bloc clips to bring out Japs hiding at night. Japs would rush foxhole after hearing clip “ping”. Then GI would shoot them.

#99

In jugle warfare that could happen. But I bet they mostly had another GI with a tommy gun for that chore.

As John George said, in his book “Shots Fired In Anger”, a Garand armed squad could slug it out with a whole platoon of Japanese and win.

He also wrote about when a bunch of Japanese charged foxholes in front of his position. He used his '03 Springfield sniper rifle to knock down to before he was empty, but the three GI’s in the foxholes killed every one of the Japanese before they reached the foxholes. He said that showed him how much better the simi-auto was to the bolt gun.

Deaf

#100

Considering that in a typical section, there was a possibility of facing up to five different weapons: M1, M1 carbine, Colt .45, BAR and the Thompson, the practice of listening for that distinctive ping seems rather hazardous outside of a classic two man duel. Even if the Americans confined themselves to using the rifle, they’d have to be firing in volley ala the British square in order to provoke a savvy enemy into a charge. And that ignores bayonets and grenades. No, it’s far better to utilize bounding overwatch, suppressive fire and pay attention to one’s own marksmanship and cover than to wait for some perceived shortcoming of the enemy’s weapon system.