tell, as the creator of the main rifle of the US infantry in World War II, went from a janitor to a great gunsmith
cases, when a person in his life invented only one model of weapons, famous, meet quite often. Less often - when a person devoted his whole life to creating virtually one weapon. For John Garand, his rifle became such a meaning of life..
semi-automatic, caliber .30. Rifle Garand or simply M1 Garand. As is often the case, the weapon obscured the man - John Garand remained in the shadow of his main creation.
John Garand and his famous rifle M1 Garand
meanwhile, the creator of the main rifle of the US infantry in World War II was not even an American by birth. Jean Garand was born on a Canadian farm, and came to the USA at the age 11 years, when his father moved to Connecticut in search of work. How easy it is to guess, get a formal education, especially higher, at the beginning of the 20th century, it was not easy for the son of an emigrant worker.
Jean/John mastered English, sweeping floors in a textile factory, and there he received his first profession as a machinist. However, he didn't stop there, having changed several firms for the production of machine tool tools and equipment, moreover, he quickly grew from a master to a machine designer. This experience was very useful to him later..
But while in the yard was 1916 year, The United States was just about to enter the First World War and the young John Garand decided, which may well combine two of his hobbies - mechanics ... and rifle shooting. By this point, the US Army had discovered with great displeasure, that their future allies in the Entente have a successful light machine gun - by the way, designs of the former American officer Lewis - but they themselves do not have such a useful item in the household.
Garand along with another constructor, John Kewish, developed his own project of a light machine gun. In July 1918 of the year they showed their sample to Hudson Maxim (Brother Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the well-known machine gun). He recommended them to the Naval Council, of which he was a member. Council, in its turn, sent two designers to the Army College, those - to the Department of Armaments ... and there, finally, they were denied.
As a result, John Garanda «attached» to the National Bureau of Standards, where did he get 35 dollars a week and could use machine shop equipment to refine his design.
But ... while his project was embodied in metal, war is over.
Nevertheless, the US military decided not to part with a promising designer. At first, they didn't like the situation «we have a war here, but we are not ready». Secondly, there was one sore subject. At the beginning of the 20th century, Mexican General Manuel Mondragon developed one of the world's first self-loading rifles..
of course, Mexican industry, such a miracle of technology was completely «too tough» and the rifle was made in Switzerland by SIG, from where it was purchased as there was money in the half-empty Mexican treasury. Furthermore, when, after the arrival of the first rifles, it was discovered, what are they, to put it mildly, do not work well with low quality ammo (what the Swiss honestly warned about) frustrated Mexicans refused further purchases, taking only 1000 already paid rifles. Remaining 3000 pieces, SIG sold to Germany after the start of World War I, where at that moment any shooter was welcome.
Mondragon semi-automatic rifle
However, the thought of, that southern neighbors have toys, which they don't have, greatly spoiled the mood of the American generals. But the tests of self-loading rifles of various designs that began before the war, as your, and foreign designers, did not give any significant result.. Therefore, the Ordnance Department decided to take matters into their own hands - the task of the new engineer of the Springfield arsenal, John Garand, was to develop a self-loading rifle..
We will devote a separate story to this story., for now, you can just see, that she was not simple. Not only because of the design and technological difficulties associated with the development, but also due to customer requirements, not distinguished by constancy. The development committee, as it should be, consisted of representatives of various branches of the military - infantry, tankers, cavalry and, of course, each representative had his own special vision, what weapon does he need.
Besides, initial claims from 1921 years prescribed to develop a new rifle for a standard army cartridge .30-06. Then the military was attracted by a patron .276 Pedersen, looking more promising for self-loading and automatic weapons. Garand provided samples for it.
But then the Great Depression began., and Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur, having estimated the number of old cartridges available in the warehouses and the approximate cost of switching to new ones, forbade even thinking in the direction of something not like .30-06. Finally, at 1933 year, the version of the Garand rifle was approved and put into service. Now only half the battle is left - to establish its production.
M1 Garand production at Springfield Technology Park
Parallel to improvement and treatment «childhood diseases» rifle, Garand began to arrange its release. In the beginning, the Springfield Arsenal struggled to produce 10 rifles per day. Since then, these numbers have steadily increased., and ultimately most of 5,4 million produced M1 was made in Springfield. As Garand himself once said: «creating tools, fixtures and machines for the production of Garand was equal to the creation of another rifle«.
Americans themselves still often argue, could the American army get better weapons by the beginning of World War II, than Garand? The exact answer to this question, of course, no. But the fact remains, that in World War II the US Army received millions of fairly reliable self-loading rifles. And it is difficult to overestimate the merit of John Garand in this..
/Andrey Ulanov, kalashnikov.media/
