Evening star., 1941-03-02

| AZ my UtCUtCo u guy OUL LIkC It
| rife, is Sh01Un in inset.
| DECENT acceptance of the Garand
IN semi-automatic rifle as the standard
shoulder arm of the Marine Corps cli-
makes a controversy that, to the sur
! prise of the War Department, has con-
| tinued long after adoption of the weapon
| by the Army.
Officers and private soldiers, in cav
| airy and infantry, whom the writer took
| pains to question on a recent tour, were
| spontaneous and fervent in their praise
| of the Garand, many thousands of which
are already in daily service.
Yet, in Congress and public prints, the
| Armys choice still excites discussion
which appears to be warmer than that
attending any previous step in basic
smal-arms throughout American mill
tary annals-from the smoothbore flint
lock of the Revolution to the percussion
cap musket of 1842, the cartridge firing
breech-loader of 1866, the magazine
rife of 1892 and the clip-charged SPRING
field of 1908.
Not a few Senators and Represent
atiyes have found in their correspond
ence markworthy proportion of in
quiries from constituents of draft age,
expressing disturbance as to rumored
flaws in the Garand rifle, with which
tens of thousands of them are to be
equipped.
Production Accelerated.
Military spokesmen comment that five
| years have elapsed since the Garand
was adopted as standard shoulder piece
for infantry and cavalry of the United
States Army; that it has been in produc-
ton on quantity basis for more than
three years at the Government Arsenal
in Springfield, Mass, and that on Janu-
ary 10 of this year the first of 5000
Garand rifles to be manufactured BY the
Winchester Repeating Arms Co., in New
Haven, came off the assembly belt. A
combined daily output of 1000 is prom
ised by April. Therefore. it is declared,
if rival of equal or somewhat better
performance should emerge, it would in
effect remain outside the running Only
a weapon of strikingly superior merit
could now hope to supplant the Garand,
because of the months that would be
needed for machine -tooling another
mass production line.
There can scarcely be a factor more
important to national defense than the
efficiency of the principal weapon with
which American soldiers may be called
upon to safeguard their lives.
AS early as 1902, the Ordnance Division
of the War Department suggested that
the next logical step in the evolution of
the magazine rifle should be it's adoption
of the automatic principle already en-
ployed with success in hand arms and
machine guns. The end desired was in
creased fire power, through reduction
of the interval between shots, to a min
imum. The 1903 Springfields innova-
ton of the clip made it possible for a
soldier to load five cartridges instead
of one with single motion. But after
each shot bolt action mechanism had
to be manipulated in order to remove
the empty case and insert fresh
cartridge. This manual operation not
only consumed time; it was awkward and
be accomplished without jerking the rifle
out of position.
Many Designs Tested.
No less than "a years passed before the
Ordnance Divisions theory became ac-
tual fact. In 1886 it presented the using
services with the Garand rifle. In the
meantime, numerous designs had been
tested and eliminated. Among those in
vestigated were the Dryse, Schaubol,
Bonimarito, Ruchiger, Bang, Elder, Liu,
Standard, Berthier, Thompson, Peder-
sen, Hatcher, Colt, Remington, Mon
dragon, Stergian, Murphy Naming, Far
quahar, Springfield and Rock Island
Arsenal models
In 1920 John C. Garand, who was do
ing research work at the Bureau of
Standards in Washington, invented his
first semi automatic, which was actuated
by the blow-back of the primer charge
in the cartridge. 1t was perfect, except
that charges proved not to be uniform in
all cartridges. He turned to gas opera
ton and his first product of this type was
a .276-caliber weapon, completed in 1926.
1t appeared so promising that the Ord
nance Division sent him to the arsenal
at Springfield, where he could continue
experiments. Three years later the
standard caliber was enlarged to 80. The
earliest Garand model of this type was
completed In 1881. 1t was fired on the