The M1 Garand

by Leroy Thompson, Peter Dennis (Illustrator), Alan Gilliland (Illustrator)

Overview

The M1 Garand gave the US infantryman a marked edge during World War II. It shot faster and further than enemy infantry rifles and hit harder. No less an authority on killing the enemy than General George S. Patton called the Garand, “The greatest battle implement ever devised.” At a time when opposing forces were armed with bolt-action rifles, US troops had a highly reliable self-loader. The eight-round clips which were used to load the M1 Garand were, however, viewed with mixed emotions by the troops on the ground. Some Army and Marine Corps troops allegedly felt that the distinctive “twang” as the Garand's clip was ejected when empty alerted the enemy that the soldiers were reloading and resulted in an attack. But the Garand became the defining mankiller of the war, despite its weight and magazine problems, and many US combat veterans consider it one of the key reasons they survived the war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780964348
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/20/2012
Series:	Weapon , #16
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	442,332
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Leroy Thompson trained and advised military and police special operations units around the world, focusing especially on the tactical use of firearms. He has previously had 38 books published and more recent titles include The Hostage Rescue Manual, The Counterinsurgency Manual and Secret Techniques of the Elite Forces. He has also had various firearms books published including Great Combat Handguns, and appeared as a weapons expert on documentaries for Discovery, National Geographic and the BBC.
Leroy Thompson has trained military and police special-operations units around the world, focusing especially on the tactical use of firearms. He is the author of more than 50 books, including The Colt 1911 Pistol and The Browning High-Power Pistol for Osprey.
Peter Dennis was inspired by contemporary magazines such as Look and Learn, leading him to study Illustration at Liverpool Art College. Peter has since contributed to hundreds of books, predominantly on historical subjects, including many Osprey titles. A keen wargamer and modelmaker, he is based in Nottinghamshire, UK.
Alan Gilliland, a contributor to more than 70 Osprey titles, notably in the Weapon series, writes, illustrates and publishes fiction (www.ravensquill.com), as well as illustrating for a variety of publishers (alangillilandillustration.blogspot.com).

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Development: The switch to semi-auto 7

Use: The M1 rifle on the battlefield 39

Impact: Loved by infantry, feared by enemies 69

Conclusion 75

Further Reading 78

Index 80