Posted on 03/22/2018 11:06:30 AM PDT by Elderberry
A grim-faced U.S. Army major led a group of armed men away from a tropical village he decided not to attack. Wearing jungle boots and olive-drab battle dress, Edwin Brooks grasped a lightweight, reliable, .30-caliber weapon in his right hand as he walked.
It was an M-1 carbine.
The scene could have been anywhere in the South Pacific during World War II or somewhere near the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War. But Brooks also wore a green beret with a Special Forces flash and he was leaving the then-South Vietnamese village of Ban Me Thuot in 1964, leading the indigenous forces he commanded back to base in an effort to defuse a rebellion.
Its all on the cover of the January 1965 National Geographic magazine in a photo by writer and photographer Howard Sochurek. Not a single M-16 is anywhere to be seen. The Pentagon had shipped thousands of the new M-16s to U.S. troops including the Special Forces, but in 1964 many Green Berets still preferred the M-1 carbine, the weapon of their fathers wars.
Whats more, Brooks Viet Cong enemy was almost certainly wielding the more modern Kalashnikov assault rifle. As for the Montagnard tribesman Brooks trained and led, they also were carrying some of the 800,000 M-1 carbines the U.S. sent to South Vietnam during the war.
For more than three decades, the M-1 carbine did more than anyone ever expected it to do. Long overshadowed by the iconic and heavy-hitting M-1 Garand, the M-1 carbine began its existence in 1940 when the Secretary of War issued orders for the development of a lightweight and reliable intermediate rifle.
It was a compromise, Doug Wicklund, senior curator at the NRA National Firearms Museum in Virginia, told War is Boring. They called it the war baby,
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
Put a Holbrook Device in it if you're afraid of mashing yore thumb.
A cousin carried an M1 Carbine off the beach at Normandy. He eventually ran into a German at close range and put three bullets into him before the Kraut put one slug into my cousin from a M98 Mauser. The German soon died but my cousin spent many months hospitalized in recovery. He always blamed not being issued an M1 Garand rifle for his malady.
I have owned several Carbines and the only suitable activity I ever found for them was hunting Jackrabbits where it is far superior to the .22 LR.
I also had an M2 Carbine equipped with an M1A1 folding stock in Vietnam but never used it seriously because of a lack of functioning reliability.
A M1 Carbine might be useful as a home defense gun but there are many better alternatives, such as a 12 gauge shotgun using buckshot or slugs.
There are also may better alternatives for military or law enforcement uses.
I have both the carbine and the Mini-14...........both are real fun to shoot.
The M-1 is so lightweight and even using iron sight if you have a steady hand you can group well at 100 yards.
You really can’t go wrong with both, from an ease, weight and shooting fun standpoint that is.
Yep, And I love my M1 Carbine. My 2 sons grew up shooting it. I've always been more of a bullseye/hunting shooter.
My oldest son is the tactical shooter in the family. He is scary fast, and on target with that carbine.
Grandfather qualified on the Thompson, but said that he always carried a carbine in the ETO. Thompson was too heavy, and ammo was even more so.
The M-1 Carbine round has plenty of killing power on men at its intended ranges. It got a bad rep in Korea when excited troops ripped off a long but poorly-aimed burst and didn’t hit the mark. Any .30 caliber rifle at about 2000 fps is very effective. I recall when US cops used them, and they never complained about killing power.
It was the preferred weapon for the boys in the Pacific.
Since nobody knew where the enemy was because of the Jungle, and since if you knew where the hell they were (in the bunkers) they favored the Carbine and Thompson over anything else. The best weapon was the flame thrower, except the guys that carried them didnt really care to.
My uncle told us that the carbine was smaller, shorter and weight was lighter. You could swing it in the jungle brush like the thompson and spray a lot of rounds down range.
Very good points.
The best weapon was the flame thrower, except the guys that carried them didnt really care to.
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That’s because the Japs concentrated on killing them ASAP.
Combat Engineers are often considered “Infantry with shovels”, as their secondary mission is to organize as Infantry.
My Dad trained with the M-1 carbine when he was in the Army, from 59-61...
His outfit actually was converted to infantry during the assault crossing of the Roer River. The Germans counter attacked before enough infantry had been put across, blew up their bridges (twice) and almost won.
On the other hand, in all the photos I have seen of them working, they were not carrying their rifles. I do suspect they were close at hand.
I had a universal carbine couple decades back the only gripe I had was the cost of the ammo 8 bucks a box... Of 50.
“Well for sure it would not perforate the chi-coms padded pajama winter uniform in Korea. It was a rifle shooting a pathetic pistol round.”
Demonstrably wrong. In ball loads it out penetrates an AR15.
And that pathetic pistol round at 100 yards carries more power than a 357 magnum does at the muzzle. The fact is that grandpa missed a lot of those chicoms. Same concept as those ducks that can fly away with their hearts shot out.
Box of truth test carbine and quilted uniforms myth.
https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-36-frozen-clothing-and-the-box-o-truth/
As an infantry captain in ETO in 1944 my Dad carried a Garand.
I luv my M1A and Garand.
Will shoot them all day over an AR.
Like AR’s but, Luv M1 anything....
You are well armed, power and accuracy-wise, out to 200 yards with an M1 carbine. Highpower CMP matches routinely shot them for score at 200.
Audie Murphy seemed to do ok with it.
My uncle was on occupation duty with the 24th Division in Japan in June 1950 when the Norks went into South Korea and they handed him an M2 carbine when he got on the boat that Tuesday. When they got off they handed him a couple of magazines of ammo and said try not to use it. WTH! He got quite good with the M2 and used it a lot including in hand to hand combat. He was happy with it.
My wife’s grandfather was sent to Korea after the war started and he said he would pick up a Carbine from time to time because of the weight factor but his LT hated the carbine and would holler Reynolds get rid of that thing and get you a Garand right now! Yes sir!
I have several from CMP and most are arsenal rebuilds at some point. IBM, Standard Products, S’G’,Quality Hardware, National Postal Meter and an Inland that appears to have not been an arsenal rebuild as it lacks the bayonet lug. They are fun to shoot, the kids and nephews always ask to shoot the M1 whenever we are doing range time.
Put a 110 grain JHP lead round in an M1 one and you have a nasty self-defense weapon.
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M-16 was the accursed mouse trap that jammed more often than it fired.
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