Word: springfields
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Navy, they get their small arms from the War Department, and wartime supply problems would be simplified if both services used the same rifle. Last winter the Marine Corps decided to have the rifle matter out once and for all. A board was appointed to test the bolt-action Springfield and three semi-automatic rifles (Garand, Winchester, Johnson). The board included such acknowledged experts as Lieut. Colonel William W. Ashurst, a crack rifleman, and Lieut. Colonel Merritt A. Edson, who had earned Marine Corps fame in Nicaragua, hunting down Sandinistas. The Winchester, barely out of the laboratory, was never...
...practical purposes the tryout resolved into a contest between 1) the Garand and Springfield, and 2) the different systems of combat fire which each represented. The old-fashioned Springfield puts down a sure but comparatively slow fire (12-15 aimed shots a minute, for an average rifleman), is therefore the darling of those who believe with Colonel William Prescott of Bunker Hill ("Don't fire until you see the white of their eyes") in deliberate, sharpshooting marksmanship. The Garand, 3 to 3½ times faster, is therefore the logical choice of those who put high fire power above all else...
After boiling down results of all the tests for accuracy, ruggedness, general fitness for combat, the board rated the rifles: 1) Springfield; 2) Garand; 3) Johnson; 4) Winchester. Best that the board could say for the Garand was that it was "superior to the other semi-automatic rifles"; "superior in the number of well-aimed shots that can be fired per minute"; could be quickly cleaned in the field. Sum and substance of the findings was that the Garand was a fair-weather rifle, excellent on the practice range but far from good enough for the Marines when the going...
...rifles were doused in mud "of light consistency." Results: "The M-1903 [Springfield] rifle can be operated. However, the bolt became harder to operate as the test progressed ... The M-I [Garand] rifles would not function and the longer an attempt was made to operate the bolt by hand the harder it became to open...
...equipment, and immediately engage in combat on a sandy beach." Results: both Garands failed to operate as semi-automatic rifles (i.e., reload automatically after each round). One failed completely and the firer had to hammer the bolt with a mallet; "the other operated by hand with extreme difficulty." The Springfields continued to work, with slight difficulty. On these salt water tests, the Garand was rated last, the Springfield first. (See pictures of how bullets are made...