Last week the U.S. Marine Corps released a report on the Garand rifle. Because the Marines know a lot about small arms, and had just adopted the Garand, the report was authoritative and timely. It was also:
• The only official, fully documented account of Garand performance ever published.
• A grave indictment of the Garand's dependability.
The Test
Until lately, the Marines' standard rifle was the 38-year-old war-tested Springfield, which was also the Army's rifle until 1936. (The Army last week had about as many Springfields as Garands in service but was substituting Garands as fast as production [about 700 a day] permitted.) Since the Army adopted the Garand, the Marine Corps has been under pressure to do the same.
Although the Marines are part of the 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 in the running. The much-publicized Johnson did better than the Winchester, did not equal the Garand in overall performance.
For 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.
But, said the Marine board, "two things stand out as essential in the shoulder weapon for the Marine Corps; one is 'dependability,' and the other 'volume of fire.' Bearing in mind the amphibious missions in the Marine Corps, the board places dependability first."
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 got tough. The going in the test was very tough. Examples:
• The 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."