#john garand

[married-to-a-redhead]

John Garand was born on this day in 1888. He is responsible for the M1 Garand, a rifle General George Patton called “the greatest battle implement ever devised."

[historicalfirearms]

M1E5: Folding Stock Garand Carbine

While the M1 Carbine was an excellent weapon, it was never intended for use as a frontline rifle, instead the US Army had envisaged it as a personal defence weapon. However, the light, handy carbine had been well received by troops despite lacking the firepower of the M1 Garand. By 1943, there were increasing calls from troops in all theatres for a handier carbine version of the M1 Garand.  

In January 1944, the Infantry Board had tested a shortened and lightened version of the M1 Garand developed by the 93rd Infantry Division. Following the Board’s conclusions that shortening the rifle had not impaired its accuracy Colonel Rene Studler, the Chief of Ordnance, directed Springfield Armory to develop a suitable carbine for service issue. John C. Garand, the M1′s designer, began work on a folding stock. Within a couple of months a prototype was ready for testing.  

The M1E5 had a barrel shortened to 18 inches, from the standard 24 inches, and an ingenious folding pantograph-style stock which attached via a rear metal cap. The weapon’s overall length with the stock extended was 37.5 inches (95.2cm) and the carbine weighed 8.4lbs (3.8kg). This was still longer and heavier than the 5.8lbs (2.4kg) and 36 inches (90cm) of the M1 Carbine but lighter and more compact than the Garand at 9.6lbs (4.4kg) and 43.5 inches (110cm). 

Initially the M1E5 did not have a pistol grip and instead had a conventional straight grip stock profile. During testing at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds an addition of a grip was recommended.

The initial incarnation of the M1E5, minus pistol grip (source)

Following recommendations made during testing, the original M1E5 carbine was retrofitted with a new pistol grip to improve the carbine’s ergonomics. Both the stock and pistol grip folded forward. This feature was also covered in Garand’s later patent (see image #1). Interestingly the stock also had a provision for a rifle grenade sight which could be attached to the ‘fixed sight base’ (see ‘30′ in image #1).  

While the shortened barrel did not impact accuracy when tested out to 300 yards, the weapon’s recoil, muzzle blast and flash were greatly increased. It became clear that an additional muzzle break would be needed to mitigate these problems. Improvements to the stock were also needed to improve ergonomics and strength - especially when firing rifle grenades. However, Springfield Armory suspended development shortly after the testing at Aberdeen. Springfield redirected staff to focus on the select-fire T20 rifle then in development.  

While development of the M1E5 ended in late 1944, and despite renewed requests for a Garand carbine in 1945 the war ended before Springfield could revisit the project. Garand filed a patent protecting the stock design in June 1946, which was granted in February 1949. Springfield Armory only built one M1E5 prototype, today it remains in the Armory’s collection.  

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3 

‘Collapsible Stock for Firearms’, J.C. Garand, US Patent #2462091, 22/03/49, (source)

U.S. Carbine.M1E5 .30 SN# 1, Springfield Armory Database, (source)

‘Improving The Deadliest Rifle In The World: The M1E Series (Light Rifle, Part III)’, TFB.com, N. Fitch, (source)

Know Your M1 Garand Rifles, E.J. Hoffschmidt, (1975) (Image #4 scan)

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[ostwind]

This April 17, 1962 photo shows John C. Garand with the Springfield Armory SPIW Concept #1 prototype, T31 bullpup rifle.  Next to Garand are Lt. Col. Charles P. Bartow ( Springfield Armory's Executive Officer), Otto H. von Lossnitzer (Chief of the Project Control Office), and Herman F. Hawthorne (Chief of the Research & Development Division). Prior to coming to US in 1946 as part of Operation Paperclip, von Lossnitzer had been the director of Mauser's Weapons Research Institute and Weapons Development Group. Curiously, Hawthorne was also an ordained minister, and years later, would preside over Garand's funeral.

[historicalfirearms]

Inventors & Their Guns: John Cantius Garand

In January 1945, General George S. Patton famously declared the M1 Garand "the greatest battle implement ever devised." During World War Two the M1 served American troops well in fire fights from Northern France to Okinawa, from North Africa to the Philippines. It later proved itself during the cold winters of the Korean War and armed over a dozen nations during the early years of the Cold War.

The US Army adopted the M1 in January 1936, after two decades of development. The man behind the iconic rifle was John Cantius Garand, a French-Canadian who had moved to America when he was eleven. As a teenager he worked at a cotton mill, he became an avid target shooter and in 1916 moved to New York and worked for a toolmaking company. Garand’s academic background was minimal only partially completing a International Correspondence School engineering course.

Garand's patent for the initial gas trap version of the M1 (source)

During World War One Garand began developing his own firearms designs, a light machine gun design gained attention from the War Department. While the design was not developed in time for testing Garand’s engineering abilities earned him a job with the United States Bureau of Standards. In 1919, at the age of 31, Garand began working at the Springfield Armory on a series of semi-automatic rifle designs. After 17 years of development Garand’s rifle was formally approved for adoption on the 9th January 1936, and began replacing the bolt-action Springfield M1903 in late 1937.

The M1 became instrumental in achieving fire superiority over the Japanese in the Pacific and the Germans in Europe. Lieutenant Colonel John George recalled how the M1 gave American troops the edge even when outnumbered: "It gave an American squad the ability to slug it out on the trail with a Japanese company, and hold for a long time."  

Approximately 6 million of his rifles were made between 1936 and 1956. He did not accept royalty payments for his rifle and remained at Springfield until he retired in 1953. Garand married his wife, Nellie, in 1930 and had two children, Dick and Janice, he died aged 86 on the 16th February, 1974. 

Sources:

Images: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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[peashooter85]

The Guns of Garand Part III, The Gas Trap Garand

In case you missed: Part I, Part II

While the M1 Garand was adopted by the US military in 1936, there was still yet one more major modification to be made before the Garand became “the greatest battle implement ever devised”.  A part of the original Garand design, early production M1’s used what was called the “gas trap” system.  This involved a muzzle extension which surrounded the muzzle to catch expanding gasses that left the barrel in an enlarged expansion chamber.  Those gases in turn would operate a piston which works the action.  

As M1 Garands began to be issued and used, it was found that the gas trap system proved to be unreliable.  Thus the design was modified in the late 1930’s, which used a simple gas tube with a 90 degree hole machined near the muzzle.  By the time the modification had been accepted around 50,000 gas trap Garands had been produced and issued.  The vast majority of them were converted by 1940.  Today original gas gas trap Garands are a highly prized  item among antique firearm collectors.  Beware! There are a lot of fakes out there.

The Gas Trap Garand pictured above has an estimated value of $14,000 - $22,500.

[peashooter85]

The Guns of Garand, Part II --- The T1 and T3 Garand

In case you missed: Part I

After the failure of his primer actuated action, John Garand went back to the drawing board, beginning work on what would become the M1 Garand in 1926.  By 1927, he had built a whole new rifle, which was designated the T1 Garand (pictured above). The T1 was a semi automatic rifle in .30-06, which featured a gas operated system in which expanding gas from the discharge of the rifle was vented off from a small port near the muzzle into a gas tube, (located below the barrel, hidden by the stock), the force of which worked the action.  The new T1 featured an eight round magazine which was loaded with an en bloc clip. One major external difference between the T1 and the M1 Garand was the addition of a barrel shroud to provide cooling ventilation for the barrel.

The new T1 Garand was to be entered into US Army Ordnance trials in 1931, however, Army Ordnance threw a big curveball similar to the one which doomed Garand's primer actuated rifles; a change in caliber.  In the 1920's and early 1930's, many military officials believed that a new small caliber, high velocity cartridge should be adopted.  Thus in the 1920's, the .276 Pedersen cartridge became popular, invented by John Pedersen, then a competitor with Garand. US Army Ordnance requested that Garand redesign the T1 to fire the new .276 cartridge. The new .276 Garand was called the "T3".  Because it fired a smaller caliber cartridge, the T3's magazine could hold ten cartridges rather than the T1's eight. The T3 was entered for testing in Ordnance Trials in early 1931. The T3 outcompeted dozens of rival designs, until eventually it was a competition between the T3, and a toggle lock design by John Pedersen. 

The T3 easily outcompeted the Pedersen rifle, which suffered serious reliability issues and needed to use greased cartridges in order to feed and cycle properly. The T3 was to be adopted by the military, but there was one more twist in the main development of the M1 Garand.  At first, the US Army was gung-ho for the adoption of a rifle in .276 Pedersen. Literally a day after the completion of Ordnance Board Trials, Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur intervened, detesting the adoption of the caliber because the Army had enormous stocks of .30-06 ammunition on hand. On February 25th, 1932 Adjutant General John B. Schuman ordered all work on .276 caliber rifles to cease.  As a result, the older T1 Garand was approved for field trials, and was adopted of the "Semi-Automatic Rifle, Caliber 30, M1".  After the identification and correction of various design flaws, it was finally officially adopted in 1936.

[peashooter85]

The Guns of Garand, Part I --- Primer Actuated Bugaboo

 John Cantius Garand is perhaps one of the most important firearms designers in American history, inventor of the legendary M1 Garand, standard arm of the American infantryman during World War II and what Gen. Patton referred to as "The greatest battle implement ever devised".  Ironically, one of America's most important gun designers was not American, but in fact French Canadian by birth, born Jean Garand (his last name rhyming with "errand") on a small farm near St. Remy, Quebec in 1888. Garand was an avid hunter and target shooter who had a penchant for mechanics and machinery.  In his early life he worked as an engineer for various textile mills and tool companies.  In 1917 he was appointed as a designer for the US Bureau of Standards, later becoming a firearms designer for Springfield Armory, then the national armory for the US Military.

The first Garand design was a light machine gun called the Model 1919.

Patented on Sept. 5th, 1919, the M1919 was a light machine gun that was similar in concept to the M1917 Browning Automatic Rifle.  The M1919 was fully automatic and featured a 20 or 30 round detachable magazine.  The M1919 utilized a primer actuated blowback system in which the primer was allowed to move back slightly, and in so doing, it was to transmit this motion through the firing pin to an actuator which would open the breech and extract the empty cartridge, after which the  gun would be reloaded by the action of a spring which had been compressed during the first motion.

The US Army was impressed with Garand's design, however they did not adopt it due to their acceptance of the M1917 Browning Automatic Rifle.  Thus, Springfield Armory encouraged Garand to modify the M1919 into a semi automatic infantry rifle.  A year later, Garand introduced the M1920, a lightweight semi automatic version of the M1919 featuring a turning bolt of his own design.

 The new M1920 was more compact and lighter than the M1920, and featured either a 20 or 30 round detachable magazine, or a clip fed box magazine. His next model, the M1921 was designed to be more in line with military specifications for an infantry rifle at the time.  It featured a fixed 5 round box magazine.  More importantly Garand did away with the turnbolt action of the M1920, replacing it was a straight action which locked at the rear.

The final Garand model was the M1923, also designated the M1924, which was a culmination of all his previous work, made to be lighter and easier to produce using less expensive materials.

Overall John Garand's primer actuated system was successful, however, after the development of the M1921, the US Army changed the type of gun powder in the .30-06 cartridge, the standard infantry cartridge of the time.  As a result, the new .30-06 cartridge did not work with his line of primer actuated firearms.  After five years of work, all of his designs were rendered completely useless.  Garand decided to abandon his primer actuated action, and in frustration went back to the drawing board.

[historicalfirearms]

Monthly Historical Firearm Desktop Wallpapers

Here’s this month’s desktop wallpaper available to Historical Firearms’ Patreon supporters. This month’s hi-resolution wallpaper features John Garand’s original gas-trap M1 Garand. It draws on Garand’s original patent drawings to show the rifle’s action including the gas trap system which was discarded in July 1940   and the larger integral magazine bulge.

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