M1 Carbine
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In 1938, the Chief of Infantry requested the Ordnance Department develop a "light
rifle" or carbine, though the formal requirement for the weapon type was not approved
until 1940. This led to a competition in 1941 by major U.S. firearm companies and
designers. The prototypes for the carbine competition were chambered for a new
cartridge, the .30 Carbine, a smaller and lighter .30 caliber (7.62 mm) round very
different from the .30-06 in both design and performance. The .30 Carbine cartridge
was intermediate in muzzle energy (ME) and muzzle velocity (MV). Essentially a rimless
version of the obsolete .32 Winchester Self-Loading cartridge, the .30 Carbine had a
round-nose 110 gr (7.1 g) bullet. From an 18 in (460 mm) barrel, the .30 Carbine
cartridge produced a muzzle velocity of approximately 1,970 ft/s (600 m/s).
Winchester at first did not submit a carbine design, as it was occupied in developing the
.30-06 Winchester M2 Military Rifle. The rifle originated as a design by Jonathan
"Ed" Browning, brother of the famous firearm designer John Browning. A couple of
months after Ed Browning's death in May 1939, Winchester hired ex-convict David M.
Williams, a convicted murderer and former moonshiner who had begun work on a
short-stroke gas piston design while serving a prison sentence. Winchester hoped
Williams would be able to complete various designs left unfinished by Ed Browning,
including the Winchester .30-06 M2 rifle. Williams incorporated his short-stroke
piston in the existing design. After the Marine Corps semi-automatic rifle trials in
1940, Browning's rear-locking tilting bolt design proved unreliable in sandy
conditions. As a result, the rifle was redesigned to incorporate a Garand-style
rotating bolt and operating rod, retaining Williams' short-stroke piston. By May
1941, Williams had shaved the M2 rifle prototype from about 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) to a
mere 7.5 lb (3.4 kg).
Development
Ordnance found unsatisfactory the first series of prototype carbines submitted by
several firearms companies and some independent designers. Winchester had contacted
the Ordnance Department to examine their rifle M2 design. Major René Studler of
Ordnance believed the rifle design could be scaled down to a carbine which would
weigh 4.5 to 4.75 lb (2.0–2.2 kg) and demanded a prototype as soon as possible. The
first model was developed at Winchester in 13 days by William C. Roemer, Fred Humeston
and three other Winchester engineers under supervision of Edwin Pugsley, essentially
Williams' last version of the .30-06 M2 scaled down to the .30 SL cartridge. This
patchwork prototype was cobbled together using the trigger housing and lockwork of a
Winchester M1905 rifle and a modified Garand operating rod. The prototype was an
immediate hit with Army observers. After the initial Army testing in August 1941,
the Winchester design team set out to develop a more refined version. Williams
participated in the finishing of this prototype. The second prototype competed
successfully against all remaining carbine candidates in September 1941, and
Winchester was notified of their success the very next month. Standardization as the
M1 Carbine was approved on October 22, 1941. This story was the loose basis of the
1952 movie Carbine Williams starring James Stewart. Contrary to movie myth, Williams
had little to do with the carbine's development, with the exception of his
short-stroke gas piston design. Williams worked on his own design apart from the
other Winchester staff, but it was not ready for testing until December 1941, two
months after the Winchester M1 Carbine had been adopted and type-classified.
Winchester supervisor Edwin Pugsley conceded that Williams' final design was "an
advance on the one that was accepted", but noted that Williams' decision to go it
alone was a distinct impediment to the project, and William's additional design
features were not incorporated into M1 production. In a 1951 memo in response to a
possible lawsuit by Williams, Winchester noted his patent for the short-stroke piston
may have been improperly granted as a previous patent covering the same principle of
operation was overlooked at the patent office. In 1974 the senior technical editor
at the NRA contacted Edwin Pugsley for "a technical last testament" on M1 carbine
history shortly before his death 19 Nov 1975. According to Pugsley, "The carbine was
invented by no single man," but was the result of a team effort including Bill
Roemer, Marsh Williams, Fred Humeston, Cliff Warner, at least three other Winchester
engineers, and Pugsley himself. Ideas were taken and modified from the Winchester M2
Browning rifle (Williams' gas system), the Winchester 1905 rifle (fire control group),
M1 Garand (buttstock, bolt and operating slide), and a percussion shotgun in Pugsley's
collection (hook breech and barrel band assembly/disassembly).
Service Use-World War II
The first M1 carbines were delivered in mid-1942, with initial priority given to
troops in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). The M1 carbine with its
reduced-power .30 cartridge was not originally intended to serve as a primary weapon
for combat infantrymen, nor was it comparable to more powerful assault rifles
developed late in the war.
Nevertheless, the carbine was soon widely issued to
infantry officers, American paratroopers, NCOs, ammunition bearers, forward
artillery observers, and other frontline troops. Its reputation in front-line
combat was mixed. The M1 carbine gained generally high praise for its small size,
light weight and firepower, especially by those troops who were unable to use a
full-size rifle as their primary weapon. However, negative reports began
to surface with airborne operations in Sicily in 1943, and increased during the
fall and winter of 1944. In the Pacific theater, soldiers and guerrilla forces
operating in heavy jungle with only occasional enemy contact praised the carbine for
its small size, light weight, and firepower. Other soldiers and marines engaged
in frequent daily firefights (particularly those serving in the Philippines) found
the weapon to have insufficient stopping power and penetration. Reports of
the carbine's failure to stop enemy soldiers, sometimes after multiple hits,
appeared in individual after-action reports, postwar evaluations, and service
histories of both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps. Aware of these
shortcomings, the U.S. Army, its Pacific Command Ordnance staff, and the Aberdeen
small arms facility continued to work on shortened versions of the M1 rifle throughout
the war, though none was ever officially adopted. While the .30 Carbine cartridge
used in the M1 Carbine could not penetrate small trees and light cover as well as the
standard U.S. .30-06 rifle cartridge, it was markedly superior to the .45-caliber
Reising and Thompson submachineguns in both accuracy and penetration, while its
lighter .30 cartridge allowed soldiers to carry more ammunition. Lt. Col. John George,
a small arms expert and intelligence officer serving in Burma with Merrill's Marauders,
reported that .30 carbine bullets would easily penetrate the front and back of steel
helmets, as well as the body armor used by Japanese forces of the era. The carbine's
exclusive use of non-corrosive primered ammunition was found to be a godsend by
troops and ordnance personnel serving in the Pacific, where barrel corrosion was a
significant issue with the corrosive primers used in .30-06 caliber weapons. However,
in the ETO some soldiers reported misfires attributed to moisture ingress of the
non-corrosive primer compound.
Service Use-Korean War
The M1, M2, and M3 carbine all saw service during the Korean War, although the
M2 armed the majority of U.S. Army and Marine units deployed there. In Korea,
all versions of the carbine soon acquired a widespread reputation among both soldiers
and Marines for jamming in extreme cold weather conditions, eventually
traced to inadequate recoil impulse and weak return springs.
A 1951 official U.S. Army
evaluation of scores of individual after-action combat reports for all small arms
usage in Korea by the Eighth Army from 1 November 1950 to 1 March 1951 documented the
weapon's cold-weather shortcomings, as well as noting complaints from individual
soldiers that the carbine bullet failed to stop heavily clothed or gear-laden North
Korean and Chinese (PLA) troops at close range after multiple hits. Soldiers reported
that their "reaction to the weapons family was almost universally to the point that
what they have is good and adequate to the tactical need...The one exception was the
carbine. One company in the 38th Infantry Regiment expressed its satisfaction with
this weapon; but it was alone in the Eighth Army. In all other units, bad experience
in battle had made troops shy of this weapon. Marines of the 1st Marine Division
also reported instances of carbine bullets failing to stop enemy soldiers, and some
units issued standing orders for carbine users to aim for the head. Ironically,
PLA infantry forces who had been issued captured U.S. small arms disliked the carbine
for the same reason. The M3 carbine, an M2 Carbine with an improved M2 (later, M3)
infrared sniperscope also appeared in combat, and was used principally during the
static stages of the conflict against night infiltrators. The M3 with the improved
M3 night sight had an effective range of approximately 125 yards.
Service Use-Vietnam
The M1 and M2 carbines were again issued to U.S. forces during the Vietnam War,
particularly with United States Air Force Security Police and United States Army
Special Forces. These weapons began to be replaced by the M16 and by M16A1 in the
early-to-mid-1960s and were generally out of service by the late 1960s. Although they
were used in limited numbers by U.S. troops and security personnel until the fall of
Saigon in 1975.
At least 793,994 M1 and M2 carbines were given to the South Vietnamese
and were widely used throughout the Vietnam War. A number were captured during the
war by Vietcong. The M1/M2/M3 carbines were the most heavily produced family of U.S.
military weapons for several decades. They were used by every branch of the U.S. Armed
Forces and are one of the most recognised firearms in the world.
Design Details
The M1 carbine's bolt mechanism is similar to the M1 rifle, though the carbine has a
different gas system and trigger mechanism design. The gas system is a lightweight
tappet-and-slide gas system. Initially fed from a 15 round magazine, a 30 round
magazine was introduced for the M2. The very first carbines, those made before
mid-1943, were originally equipped with a "V-cut" extractor for removal of the fired
round from the chamber. The "V-cut" design was found to be flawed and unreliable. In
the field "V-cut" extractors were reground to a straight configuration, which enhanced
reliability, until factory production was able to supply the better design. The
.30 Carbine cartridge was intermediate in both muzzle energy (ME) and muzzle velocity
(MV). It is essentially a rimless version of the obsolete .32 Winchester Self-Loading
cartridge. The .30 Carbine had a round-nose 110 gr (7.1 g) bullet, in contrast to
the spitzer bullet designs found in most full-power rifle cartridges of the day. From
the M1 carbine's 18 in (460 mm) barrel, the .30 Carbine cartridge produced a muzzle
velocity of approximately 1,970 ft/s (600 m/s), a velocity between that of contemporary
submachine guns (approximately 900 to 1,600 ft/s (300–500 m/s)) and full-power rifles
and light machine guns (approximately 2,400 to 2,800 ft/s (700–900 m/s)). At the M1
carbine's maximum effective combat range of 300 yards (270 m), its bullet has about
the same energy as pistol rounds like the 8mm Nambu do at the muzzle. Bullet drop is
significant past 200 yards (180 m). One characteristic of .30 Carbine ammunition is
that from the beginning of production, non-corrosive primers were specified. This was
the first major use of this type of primer in a military firearm. Because the rifle
had a closed gas system, not normally disassembled, corrosive primers would have led
to a rapid deterioration of the gas system. The use of non-corrosive primers was
a novelty in service ammunition at this time. Some misfires were reported in
early lots of .30 Carbine ammunition, attributed to moisture ingress of the
non-corrosive primer compound. Categorizing the M1 carbine series has been the
subject of much debate. The M1 is sufficiently accurate at short ranges. At 100 yards
(91 m), it can deliver groups of between 3 and 5 minutes of angle, sufficient for its
intended purpose as a close-range defensive weapon. Its muzzle energy and range are
beyond those of any submachine gun of the period, though its bullet is much lighter
in weight and smaller in diameter than that of .45 caliber weapons, and much less
powerful than those of other service rifles of the period. The M1 and later M2
carbines were never designed to be assault rifles, such as the later German StG44 and
Russian AK-47, and the .30 Carbine cartridge gives up significant muzzle velocity
(roughly 350 ft/s (110 m/s)) to both. Additionally, the bullets used in the
cartridges of the AK-47 and StG44 are spitzer designs, and suffer less energy loss
and trajectory drop at distances beyond 100 yards (91 m). Most authorities list the
effective combat range of the M1 carbine at around 200 yards (180 m), compared to
250-300 yards (230–270 m) for the AK-47 and StG44.
Accessories
Perhaps the most common accessory used on the M1 Carbine was a standard belt-type
magazine pouch that was mounted to the right side of the stock and held two spare
15-round magazines. However, the military soon recognized the value of these pouches
when mounted to the stock and made them a standard-issue item. After the introduction
of the 30-round magazine, it was common for the troops to tape two 30-round magazines
together. This led the military to introduce the "Jungle Clip",
which was a metal
clamp that would hold two magazines together without the need of tape. A folding stock
version of the Carbine was also developed after a request was made for a compact and
light infantry arm for airborne troops. The M1 carbine was used with the M8 grenade
launcher, which was fired with the M6 cartridge to launch 22 mm rifle grenades. It
also accepts the M4 bayonet, which was based on the M3 knife. The M4 bayonet formed
the basis for the later M6 and M7 bayonet-knives. The carbine was modified from its
original design to incorporate a bayonet, due to requests from the field. Very few
carbines with bayonet lugs reached the front lines before the end of World War II.
This modification was made to nearly all carbines during arsenal rebuild following
World War II. By the time the Korean War began, the bayonet-equipped M1 was standard
issue. It is now rare to find a non bayonet lug-equipped original M1 carbine. As
carbines were reconditioned at arsenals, parts such as the magazine catch, rear sight,
barrel band with bayonet lug, and stock were upgraded with the current standard issue
parts, usually parts as redesigned for the M2 carbine. During World War II, the
T23 (M3) flash hider was designed to reduce the muzzle flash from the carbine, but was
not introduced into service until the advent of the M3 carbine. With the
exception of T23 hiders mounted on M3 Carbines, few if any T23 flash hider attachments
saw service during World War II, though unit armorers occasionally hand-built
improvised compensator/flash hiders of their own design.