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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). UScarbineCAL30M1.com 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 UScarbineCAL30M1.com 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. UScarbineCAL30M1.com 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. ArmyUScarbineCAL30M1.com 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. UScarbineCAL30M1.com 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", UScarbineCAL30M1.com 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.

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