Word: garand
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Before a House subcommittee last month, Major General Thomas Holcomb, Commandant of the U. S. Marine Corps, unbagged a cat, which set up a muted yowl. The cat: news that the crack-shooting Marine Corps was less than satisfied with the Garand semi-automatic rifle, Army-sponsored successor to the reliable, bolt-action 1903 Springfield. With a firm grip on the cat's collar, General Holcomb said discreetly: "We are not certain yet that the Garand rifle will meet our needs. We will know in the course of the next two months whether it is a better rifle than...
General Holcomb's left-handed crack at the Army's small-arms pet did not stir up again the controversy of last spring (TIME, May 6) in which the authoritative National Rifle Association panned the Garand as an inaccurate shooting piece, given to overheating, hard to maintain. But his mild remarks disclosed that the Marine Corps was doing some rifle shopping on its own account, had already given a preliminary look at a new semi-automatic put out by Winchester Repeating Arms Co. (which is now making Garands under Government contract). This week the new Winchester was ready...
Past the reviewing stand trotted the Sixth Cavalry's first squadron (cavalry-talk for battalion): 424 horses carrying troopers armed with Garand rifles and automatic pistols, 48 pack horses loaded with machine and anti-tank guns. After them in a cloud of blue smoke snorted the second squadron: 68 armored scout cars, no motorcycles, trucks, rolling kitchens, ambulances. Spectators found the motor squadron old stuff. More interested in the horse squadron, they watched it trot up to 58 truck-trailer combinations, unsaddle, walk its mounts up inclined tail gates, tie them inside. Within 10½ minutes horses were loaded...
Army officers have repeatedly assured Congress that their new Garand rifle is the best anywhere (TIME, May 6). Nevertheless, the Senate's military appropriations chairman Elmer Thomas had to be shown. If doubting Thomas was naive enough to expect the War Department to endanger its $15,000,000 investment in Garands, he was soon disillusioned. Reluctantly, under conditions which prohibited any positive test, the Army last week pitted six Garands (fired in relays so that no single gun took the gaff) against two of Melvyn Maynard Johnson Jr.'s rival semiautomatics...
...yard targets at Ft. Belvoir, Va., Johnsons first outshot Garands in accuracy 404-393), then were outshot (348-405). The Garand seemed to stand up well under 150 rapid-fire rounds, was reasonably accurate. The Johnson was slightly more accurate at 600 yards, slightly slower in firing...