The M1 Garand was superior to any other rifle in service during WWII.

In this final round, I will move to elaborate on the points made previous, expanding to make clear how my opponent has argued quite successfully that the M1 Garand filled a niche specialty role as a rifle, but when weighted to the reality of combat, fell short of being a superior rife to the StG 44. To the points made by my opponent: The Garand was accurate. The Garand was powerful. The Garand was rugged. I agree that these points are not in dispute. However, what my opponents has avoided bringing to light are the painful downsides of these points that inevitable will strip it of the title of superior rifle. In order to be as accurate as it is, the Garand needs to be a lengthy 43.5 inches. This long encumbrance was only exceeded by dedicated sniper rifles, and even then, the M1903 Springfield used in World War Two was only 0.4 inches longer. Perhaps in the antiquated rank and file fighting where the enemy was expected to stay their distance would this not be an issue, but the modern stage that was forming in the 1940s saw the need for battlefield flexibility, good mobility and fast target acquisition. The Garand was designed for an era that was fast closing, of long battles along fixed lines. The StG 44 was a smaller, more mobile platform, better suited to ranges actually encountered, from close in trenches and house clearing to wide open fields of fire. To say that a shotgun would perform better in the trenches is indisputable. Likewise, a sniper rifle no doubt will outperform at long range. Yet each is severely debilitated when brought out of it's individual zone of comfort. The StG 44, as all with assault rifles, is the every-man's rifle, well suited to perform across the entire battlefield envelope equally. The Garand simply cannot offer the same performance when brought below it's long range comfort zone. To ensure lethality at long range, the Garand was chambered in the powerful .30-06 round. This round developed a impressive muzzle velocity of over 2,700 feet per second despite being a hefty 173 grains. This ensured deadly energy even after a long terminal phase. However, the is an important issue to be addressed with these impressive numbers. Yes, the M1 Ball could generate almost 3,000ft/lbs of force on the target. However that number relies on the fact that the bullet comes to rest inside the target, transferring the entirety of it's momentum into organs and bones. If the round were to over penetrate, and continue onwards, only a fraction of that energy would have transferred to the target. An optimized round is designed to come to complete rest within it's target,balancing the need more a minimum penetration without passing through. The Kurz round, a revolutionary experimental round for it's time, exemplified the practice of a balance projection of force to the target. 125 grains at 2,250 ft/s was near to ideal for the broad range of engagement it was expected to perform within. The round may have only produced 1,400 foot pounds of force, but it was ensured that every bit of it was delivered to the target, with none wasted. This is a staple of modern assault rifles, each posting similar statistics for the engagement range most encountered on the battlefield. While heavier, more powerful rounds are used, such as the 7.62 NATO round, the successor to the .30-06 round, these are only employed when long range performance is needed, never at commonly found ranges. Again, with it's use of a powerful battle round, the Garand has shown itself to be well suited to a specialty rear line role, not a main combat rifle. The ruggedness of the Garand was achieved through both the use of an expensive and time consuming forged steel and the dated practice of full wood furniture. With the American war machine at full tilt, it could afford the slower production schedule of a forged and milled receiver. The wood furniture, while strong, was heavy and limited the environment to which it could be deployed. In the hot wet Pacific campaign, warping of the hand guard from humidity significantly affected accuracy. The length, bulk and generous use of wood made for a rugged melee implement indeed, but at the cost of a lean rifle. The StG 44 is indeed produced from a stamped steel construction, producing an equally heavy rifle. It was produced very late in Germany's war effort, when rifles were needed regardless of quality. This did not stop the StG 44 from being a top performer in the battlefield. Deployed on the eastern front, it provided a much larger volume of fire compared to any infantry alternative. The criticisms levied against it at the end of the war better reflect the bias that Allied forced had rather than any testament to the weapon's performance. Again to mention that the landscape of World War Two was one that drove innovation at a rate not seen since perhaps the invention of the transistor to replace the vacuum tube. It can be seen at a transition from old to new in almost every facet of war fighting. Personnel armor, beyond obsolete and unissued during the First World War, was reintroduced in the form of flak jackets and steel helmets. Early jet fighters offered glimpse of modern air forces today. Guided rockets, aircraft carriers, main battle tanks. In almost every facet, what entered the war was rendered obsolete by what left it. The StG 44 is no exception. It holds the distinction of being a first in it's class, one that revolutionized small arms design and battlefield engagements all the way to modern times. Every single assault rifle fielded today traces its core lineage back to the StG 44. By providing a high volume of fire effective at 90% of encountered engagement ranges, the StG 44 gave a single infantryman the firepower of a machine gun squad will enabling him to be as mobile as the infantryman of the day. It is for these reasons that the StG 44 should claim the title as the superior rifle of World War Two. Thank you. -DS