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An American Marine with a hole in his helmet poses with 'The Rifle that won the War' on Tarawa, November 1943.
The M1 Garand was the standard US rifle in World War II. Designed to replace the old M1903 Springfield, the M1 was semi-automatic and held 8 rounds of the same ammo the Springfield used (.30-06). The rifle served until the beginning of the Vietnam War. It is quoted by General George S. Patton that "the M1 Garand is the greatest battle implement ever devised."
History
The M1 Garand is a gas operated, semi-automatic rifle. It was designed by Canadian Springfield Armory worker, John Garand. The military was looking for a semi-automatic rifle to replace the bolt-action M1903 "Springfield" series. Garand competed with most notably, John Browning (who designed a series of key machine guns and shotguns used in both World Wars), and John Thompson (who designed the Thompson Sub-machine Gun).
Garand's first prototype was designed in 1922, but still didn't meet military specifications. Originally, Garand's design was to use the .276 Pedersen cartridge and had an internal magazine capacity of 10 rounds. This caliber was rejected for logistic reasons as the Army wanted a single caliber for all its light rifles and machine guns. Nearly a decade later, Garand's product was finalized and was adopted as the U.S. Rifle Cal. 30 M1. It could shoot faster than the Springfield, at the same range and accuracy the Springfield had. By 1943, the M1 Garand was standard issued to the average soldier.
The rifle was used all across World War II, from Europe to the Pacific. Different variants of the M1 Garand would come up after World War II. The M1C and M1D "Sniper" Variants are most notable. The M1 Garand snipers were used in Korea. The Sniper Garand was unimpressive, because of the en bloc clip system, the scope couldn't be mounted on top of the gun, unlike the Springfield. Instead the scope was on the left hand side on the gun, even then, the scope could still get damaged by the en bloc clip.
The rifle was hailed by soldiers for it's semi-automatic firing ability, it's accuracy and the ability to reload it quickly. However, one feature that soldiers considered a liability was the en bloc clip's ejection after all rounds had been expended. When the clip popped out of the breach, it gave off a distinctive metallic ping.
There are stories that when the sound was heard by enemy soldiers, combined with the sight of the clip's ejection was enough to alert the enemy that a grunt had shot all his rounds and could be charged. Hearing this ping in the middle of a gunfight has been refuted by several veterans as ridiculous.