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M-1/M-1A1/M-2 Carbines

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  • M-1/M-1A1/M-2 Carbines

    The M-1 Carbine has seen service from the Second World War up to today. It had started off a PDW and was soon turned into a front line combat weapon. After the Second World War it became a very popular weapon for COIN operations by the European powers. After the war most European powers still issued bolt action rifles to infantry units and the short, handy and semi/fully automatic M-1/M-2 Carbines became very popular with combat units. France used it in widely Indochina though they had begun to be phased out during the Algerian conflict. Many of the French models were American aid meant on paper for the ANV but were issued to French units. They got picked up by American allies in the Korean War. England issued them during the conflict in Malaya. America issued scores of them to allies in the 3rd world fighting in local conflicts and the weapon remained popular for being light weight, having an easy kick, and having a high rate of fire. They were very common in Indochina with the Thai, Korean, South Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian forces.

    As a service rifle it came up short in Korea due to being underpowered when it came to punching through winter uniforms and reliability suffered under the conditions it had to serve under. During the 2nd Indochina war they were felt to be outclassed by Communist AK-47/Type-56s and were phased out in favor of the M-16 assault rifle. With the end of Colonial conflicts and the coming of modern battle rifles the M-1/M-1A1/M-2 were phased out of European forces. It was the coming of the M-16 which removed them from service in SE Asian armies. During the 1970s America supplied thousands to Zaire to support them in the conflict in Angola.

    The Carbine still turns up in the hands of guerilla groups around Asia and Latin America. Interestingly many have been picked up by Israeli police looking for a lower power rifle.

    In its heyday it had become the M-4 of its time, had some problems but "everyone" seemed to use them.

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    Caliber: .30 US Carbine (7.62x33 mm)
    Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt
    Overall length: 904 mm
    Barrel length: 458 mm
    Weight: 2.36 kg without magazine
    Magazine capacity: 15 or 30 rounds
    The M1 carbine is an interesting little weapon. The original request for a compact and lightweight shoulder arm to replace service handguns for second-line (non-fighting) troops was first issued by US Army in 1938. The idea behind this request was that a shoulder arm, such as carbine, firing ammunition of moderate power, will have more effective range and will be much simpler to train the users to fire it accurately, than the standard .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol or revolver. This request was probably the first recognition of the need in the Personal Defense Weapon in the modern sense. Request was shelved for some time and re-issued in 1940. It included the new cartridge of .30 caliber but of power far less than of US general issue .30-06 ammunition. The cartridge, officially named the "cartridge, ball, .30 caliber, M1", was developed by the Winchester company. It was a straight-case, rimless design with round-nose bullet weighting 110 grains (7.1 gram) and muzzle velocity of 1860 fps (~ 570 m/s). Muzzle energy was about 2 times more than of .45ACP pistol cartridge but still almost 3 times less than of .30-06 rifle cartridge. In the modern sense the .30 carbine cartridge can be called an "intermediate" but the lack of the muzzle energy and round nosed bullet limited the effective range to about 200 meters or so. Anyway, it had still much longer range than any pistol round of its time, along with moderate recoil. Many companies submitted their designs for US Army trials but the winner eventually became the Winchester. The design of the Winchester carbine is often contributed to the David "Carbine" Williams, who was the developer of the gas system. But, according to some sources, this carbine was born as a spare-time hunting carbine project of some engineers at Winchesters' workshop, and, when military request appeared, this design was resurrected and adopted for intended use. In any case, Winchester began to deliver its first carbines to the US Government in the July, 1942. Some other manufactures also were selected to produce the M1 carbines, such as Inland Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corp., Underwood-Elliot-Fisher Co., Saginaw Steering Gear Division of the General Motors Corp., National Postal Meter Co., Quality Hardware & Machine Co., International Business Machines Corp (IBM), Standard Products Co. and Rock-Ola Co. During the period of 1942 - 1945 total of more than 6 millions of carbines were manufactured. Since 1944, the only companies still manufacturing M1 carbines were Winchester and Inland. After the end of the WW2 production continued for some time, and M1 carbine and its variations saw some serious action as a first-line weapon not only during the WW2, but also during Korean and early stages of Vietnam war. M1 carbines also were widely exported by US Government to numerous friendly nations, mostly in South-East Asia. M1 carbines saw limited use in the post-war West Germany and France. It should be also noted that M1 carbines are still manufactured by various small US companies for civilian sales, using both military surpulus and newly made parts. Large numbers of surpulus M1 carbines also were sold at the civilian markets in the post-war period.
    In general, M1 Carbine was a really compact and handy weapon. It was lightweight and short enough to be more suitable for jungle combat, than a full-size battle rifles such as M1 Garand. It also offered relatively high practical rate of fire due to large-capacity, detachable magazines and low recoil. The M2 modification, which had a select-fire capability and a magazines of larger capacity (30 rounds, interchangeable with the older 15-round ones), could be described as an "almost an assault rifle" ("almost" is added due to the lack of effective range). Had Americans a little trouble to soup it up slightly in the terms of power and range, they could have a true assault rifle 20 years before they actually did, and probably with much less headache. But they did not, and M2 was manufactured in relatively small numbers and was mostly used during the Korean war. Another modification was the even more compact "paratrooper" version, M1A1, with side-folding metallic buttstock and a pistol grip. This version also was produced in limited numbers. The last modification was the M3, which originally appeared as an experimental prototype T3. It was no more than a M2 select-fire carbine, fitted with special mounts to accept night-vision sighting devices (IR sights). Intended use was as a short-range, night-time sniper rifle. M3 also was used in Korea and, probably, Vietnam.
    It must be noted that during the war in Korea M1 carbines received some bad fame due to reliability problems in extremely low temperatures and also due to underpowered cartridge, which was sometimes unable to effectively penetrate the thick winter uniforms of North Korean and Chinese soldiers at extended ranges.
    Technically, M1 Carbine is a gas operated, magazine fed, semi-automatic or select-fire (M2) short rifle. It uses the short-piston stroke gas operated action, designed by D. Williams. Gas piston is located under the middle of the barrel and has a travel of about 1/3 inch (8 mm). When gun is fired, the powder gases are bleed from the barrel into the gas chamber and propel the gas piston violently to the rear. The gas piston thus gives a sharp blow to the operating slide, which is located inside the stock and is linked to the rotating bolt, more or less similar to one found in M1 Garand rifle. The bolt has two forward lugs that locks into the receiver walls. The safety on all M1 carbines and variations is located at the front part of the triggerguard. On the earliest carbines the safety was in the form of the cross-bolt push-button but latter it was replaced by the lever-type switch, because in the heat of the combat the safety button was sometimes confused with magazine release button, located next to the safety. The fire mode selector on the M2 and M3 was located at the left side of the receiver. The cocking handle is permanently attached to the operating rod. Sights on the earlier M1 carbines had a flip-up rear diopter (peep-hole) with settings for 150 and 300 feets, and later rear sights were replaced by drift-adjustable diopter. Carbines were issued with sling and sometimes with additional pouch that was mounted on the buttstock and allowed to carry two spare magazines on the gun itself. Early M1 carbines had no provisions to mount a bayonet, however, some older models had bayonet lugs on the barrel.


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    Indonesian Army - 1965
    Burmese Karen Guerillas
    Laotian Hmong Guerillas
    French Forces - Indochina
    ANV Paratroops - Saigon 1954
    Attached Files
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    M1 Carbine was a great, handy weapon, except for the round it used.
    "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man

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    • #3
      Indonesia has produced a modern assault rifle for police using the M1 .30 round. I think it is called a Pindad or something.

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      • #4
        The carbines themselves were not that expensive. The biggest money was made in all the accessories that was sold to the military.

        When I owned an M-1 Carbine years ago I had 3 types of scabbards for it, bayonet, flash hider and muzzle brake (couldn't fit the bayonet on with either one of those devices), grenade launching sight (never mounted it though) and three sizes of magazines (5 round commercially shortened from a standard 15 round and then I also had the 30 round banana clip). I did not own a grenade launcher (though they were made) nor the IR night sight device.

        I had a problem with the rear sight continueing to loosen up while firing and my accuracy was not. Just was NOT. I finally sold the whole kit when American made ammo was getting scarce and even the French ammo was getting too expensive for a gun that would be good for Coyotes but nothing bigger.

        I take that back. I knew a welder foreman from the shipyard that used a .30 Carbine for hunting Mule Deer. He would use the 30 round bannana clips and rapid fire the whole clip into the animal. Then he would quarter it, stuff it into a secret compartment of his camper and bring it back to Long Beach. After putting it in the freezer he would go back up to the mountains again to shoot a legal deer. All within 24 hours. After he died of a heart attack, I bought his truck and camper.

        The only other firearm I knew that could fire the .30 carbine round was a special edition of Ruger Blackhawks that had interchangable cylinders for 9mm and .30 carbine. It wasn't too popular as the barrel was either too tight for the .354" dia pistol round or too big for the .308" dia carbine round. At least that was the standard complaint I got from some of our gun shop customers (when I used to be in that business as a side line). As long as they bought them and their checks cleared they could nit-pick all they want.
        Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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        • #5
          My grandfather was in Marine Recon in Korea and despised it. They never used it for, in his opinion, it was "absolutely useless" in terms of killing the enemy.

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          • #6
            I belive that Britian's Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland carries the M2 Carbine.

            I dont know about any other offically reconigzed goverment forces. All US law enforcement agencies use either the Mini 14, AR-15, CAR-15, or M16 as their standard rifle.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by RustyBattleship
              The only other firearm I knew that could fire the .30 carbine round was a special edition of Ruger Blackhawks
              Don't fire the Ruger with ammo meant for the carbine! It won't do any damage, AFAIK, BUT THE NOISE IS HORRENDOUS! even with ear protection it isn't any fun at all!
              sigpicUSS North Dakota

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