Carbine Rifle

[connie]

In a post yesterday (under "Remembering...") Floyd spoke of his memorable experience of complaining about the accuracy of his carbine and of being given a general's cherished rifle instead. The account is worth reading just for its history:
106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=remembering&action=display&thread=452

I have some questions about the weapon. I went on line and found a wikipedia photo of an "M-1 Carbine." Is this the inaccurate weapon you had.?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_carbine

I knew that the Field Artillery men had carbine rifles (the M-1?) but I knew only the name and nothing about the gun. I assumed, apparently in error, that infantry troops had something other than carbines. I do remember your mentioning carbines before and noting their inaccuracy. Pondering that later I thought that my dad might in one incident have owed his life to that inaccuracy. He had been out on a Service Battery run in the days when everyone's location was fluid. Having finally located the men he was with (remnants of 589th & 590th SV), he approached them in the evening and was fired upon by carbines. Saved by an inaccurate gun?

Anyway, I'm interested in the personal weapons carried by you and other infantry soldiers, Floyd... and anything else you (or anyone else) like to share about these guns.

Connie

[gfgrant8443]

Connie

I have a M-1 carbine in my collection. It is shorter and much lighter in weight than the M-1 Garand that I also have. As I understand it the M-1 carbine was developed to be a substitute for the 45 cal. pistol issued to support troops to give them a little more firepower. The M-1 garand held 8 rounds of 30.06 ammunition and the M-1 carbine used a smaller .30 caliber cartridge and had a detachable magazine that could hold 10, 14 or 30 rounds and came in a semi-auto or full auto version.

That's a thumbnail sketch of what I believe is accurate, but I am by no means an expert.

Frank Grant

[floydragsdale]

Connie:

The picture of the carbine M1 in wwikipedia looks like the one I had. Soldiers in the Heavy Weapons platoon had side arms (45 pistol) or a carbine.

As assistant Gunner in the Motor Section, I was issued a carbine. The accuracy of that rifle was lousy. As I remember, the sighting mechanism was no match to the one on the Garand M1 rifle.

Before joining the 106 Division I carried the M1 Garand and qualified as on exert with it on the target range. When I tried to qualify, for record, with the carbine I had to aim "over there" in order for it to hit the target "over here."

G.I.'s made jokes about the carbine rifle. One of them was, "it was as worthless as ____- on a boar.

There was one problem with Springfield O3, though, and it was "clips" to hold the ammunition. I think a clip held five 30 caliber shells. As the clips were used, they had to be saved and re-loaded by the person using the weapon. I remember trying to scrounge for some in our battalion. They were hard to find.

I often wondered what happened to the Springfield 03 that I had to leave on the battlefield in January 1945.


Floyd

[Carl W.]

An M-1 Carbine as issued to GI's in WWII used 15 round magazines. After WWII the army continued to issue it, but now they had a 30 round 'banana' magazine and it was in selective fire either semi or full auto. It's a compact weapon, which was issued to paratroopers with a folding stock.

An interesting training video from WWII shows the various infantry weapons and their effects:
www.realmilitaryflix.com/public/401.cfm

Carl

[engineercutoff44]

Hi Connie I was able to save some m-1 carbine and m-1 garand parts that are from the time that the troops were told to dismantle their weapons before they surrendered would love to find a good home for items like these...