"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"David R. Birch" wrote:

On 7/21/2011 7:10 AM, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
I found the letter "This is my rifle" to the editor of Machine Design
interesting. Published in the 7 July 2011 issue.

http://machinedesign.com/article/letters-7072011-0707

I had to look bullpup up. Turns out there is a Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullpup.


I really have to wonder if Chinese winter clothing really can stop a M1
bullet, except perhaps at extreme range, where the bullet's kinetic
energy is already mostly gone.


Joe Gwinn

From a letter in the link above:

"In Korea, troops found that carbine bullets often failed to penetrate
heavy winter clothing worn by Chinese soldiers."

Not a bullet from a Garand, but from am M1 carbine. Many rear echelon
troops armed with carbines ended up in combat in Korea.

I did read that letter later. I didn't realize that there is that much
difference between M1 carbine and M1 garand. But it's still a firearm,
and I have to think that range matters.

The difference in power is huge. When I was a kid in PA, the .30 cal. M1
carbine was not legal for deer hunting, because it was underpowered. No .22
centerfires were allowed, either.

Here's an interesting anecdote, which I didn't see in the HBO series "The
Pacific," which otherwise was almost the exact story my dad told me about
WWII in the South Pacific. My dad was a sergeant in the First Marine
Division, first landing at Guadalcanal, and all that.

They were issued '03 Springfields, not M1 Garands (my dad had a Thompson
after the first day -- there were plenty of them lying in the hands of dead
Marines). Anyway, after they'd been there a few weeks, they got a shipment
of M1 carbines. The Marines in his unit -- I don't know if this was at the
platoon level or above -- tried them out for three days. Then they walked
down to the beach and threw them in the ocean.

In "The Pacific," there were plenty of M1 Garands at Guadalcanal, as well as
some carbines. But my dad told me they never got Garands until they shipped
out of Guadalcanal. They were using '03s and Thompsons until they left.

--
Ed Huntress



I did some research. Apparently the limitations of the M1 carbine are
well known: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_carbine.

Joe Gwinn