It is hard to argue with the M1 Garand’s description as “the greatest battle implement ever devised,” according to Gen. George Patton, but with more than 6.1 million M1 Carbines made during World War 2, it also did its share of heavy lifting during World War 2.

Is there a winner or loser in this argument between whether the M1 Garand or the M1 Carbine was better? Each were adopted in different ways and their uses didn’t exactly align, but both showed the industrial might of the United States when it was placed on a war footing and they proved to be dependable tools in the defeat of fascist imperialism.

Follow along as we highlight both of these guns’ service during World War 2, take a deep dive into the M1 Carbine vs M1 Garand debate, and share some examples of each available at Rock Island Auction Company.

The M1 Garand, bottom, and M1 Carbine, top, were vital tools for U.S. infantry and paratroopers in World War 2.

M1 Carbine Vs M1 Garand: Road to Adoption

Following World War 1, U.S. military officials turned to the need for a semi-automatic, self-loading rifle design to replace the aging Springfield M1903 bolt action rifle. Trials for a new battle rifle that fired .30-06 ammunition would include the time and number of tools to disassemble the gun, firing 100 rounds, firing over-loaded rounds, exposure to dust and more. Among the four guns submitted for the first trials in 1920 were a rotating bolt, primer actuated design by John Garand for Springfield Armory. Garand’s design and another were found promising though officials noted a gun that fired .30-06 was unlikely to meet the requirement to weigh less than 10 lbs.

For its role as WW2s most successful semi-automatic infantry rifle, the M1 Garand can be hailed one of the best guns of all time. This example, a U.S. Springfield Armory T1E2 "Model Shop" M1 Garand rifle, Serial Number "5", is a true national treasure.

Garand’s gas operating rotating bolt design included an internal eight round magazine that was loaded by en bloc clips. The Garand continued to prove itself while changes were suggested by the Ordnance Board. The process toward adoption proved to be labyrinthine with several trials and a different caliber round suggested at one point before returning to the .30-06 at the request of Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur.

A unique documented Army Ordnance Department display unserialized U.S. Springfield Gas Trap M1 Garand rifle.

The guns, that included designs from familiar names like Colt, Browning, Thompson and Pedersen, went through several tests and field trials with rifles being added and others dropping out while the Garand’s simple design continued to show it was the most accurate and durable. It also met the weight criteria, coming in at less than 10 lbs. The Garand was officially adopted as the “U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1 in January 1936. Garand’s gun had to fend off one late design, from Melvin Johnson that had some U.S. Marine Corps support, before going into production. After 51,000 rifles of the M1 Garand were manufactured, the gun’s gas trap was switched to a gas port system that solved some misfiring problems.

The idea behind a carbine, a rifle with a shorter barrel, was to issue it to support troops. With more mobile armies, any soldier could be considered close to the front line so a more effective weapon than a pistol was needed. Carbines had been used by horse cavalry and artillery troops but the Army hadn’t issued a carbine in 44 years.

This M1 Garand was manufactured in July 1941 and has a set of early pattern adjustment drums marked “BATTLE RANGE” windage and “LEFT/LEFT” elevation with closed arrows. It also is accompanied by a bayonet with scabbard.

Army officials recognized that the Garand was too heavy for troops charged with carrying crewed weapons like cannons or heavy machine guns, so the Army went in search of a new gun, weighing less than 5 lbs. At the same time, Winchester was assigned design of a rimless cartridge for such a gun, slightly smaller but still of .30 caliber.

In 1940, with the war raging in Europe, a call for designs went out for a simple, strong, compact and easy to manufacture carbine with a sling and a range out to 300 yards. Designs were to be submitted by Feb. 1, 1941. Nine were received but two were quickly rejected, leaving candidates from Savage, the Woodhull Corporation, Colt, Harrington & Richardson, Auto-Ordnance, Springfield Armory (a John Garand design) and Bendix Aviation. None were declared satisfactory during testing that May and June, though the Springfield and Bendix designs were considered for further testing upon modifications.

A World War II U.S. Springfield M1 Garand rifle sold for $3,819 with Rock Island Auction in May of 2022.

Winchester didn’t submit a carbine design because the company was wrapped up in creating the carbine cartridge and preparing for production of the Garand. It did have a problematic carbine design so the company brought in David Marshall Williams, a self-taught gunsmith who served time in prison, to work on it. Williams corrected the issue with a short-stroke gas piston system. Winchester contacted the Army in May 1941 about submitting it for trial. The company was told to make it lighter and to fix reliability issues. With two hours to deadline, Winchester officials arrived with a prototype. The Winchester design beat the others in the trial and went into production in the fall of 1941.

The sped-up design to adoption process for the carbine and getting it to production in less than two years puts the M1 Carbine ahead of the M1 Garand that took more than a decade for approval and adoption.

The M1 Carbine, America’s most produced gun model of WW2.

M1 Carbine Vs M1 Garand: Production

M1 Carbine vs M1 Garand production numbers were suprisingly close. Manufacturing of the M1 Garand faced delays so soldiers didn’t start seeing the gun issued until September 1937, two years before Germany invaded Poland to launch World War 2.

As was mentioned earlier, Winchester, designing a cartridge for the yet to be adopted carbine, received an “educational order” for 500 M1 Garand rifles in January 1939 after military estimates put Springfield Armory short of its goal of producing 156,000 rifles by Dec. 31, 1941. A mobilization plan called for a total 240,000 M1 rifles. In September, Winchester received a follow-up order for 65,000 Garand rifles for delivery by July 1, 1942.

Gun designer John Garand, left, shows his eponymous rifle, the M1 Garand, to military officials.

As production of the Garand ramped up, Springfield Armory switched some milled parts to stamped parts as a way of streamlining production. Springfield Armory’s manufacturing costs per rifle also dropped from 1943 to 1944 by more than $3 each. The armory’s peak production was January 1944 when about 4,600 rifles were produced each day. Its production total from 1934 to 1946 was 3.526 million rifles. Winchester production hit its peak at the same time as it produced 513,000 M1 Garand rifles between 1941 and 1945.

The initial production total of M1 Carbines was 500,000 before the start of the war. Following its adoption late in 1941 with only a prototype, design drawings were completed just days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Winchester was contracted to make 350,000 and eventually made 828,059 total, while Inland Manufacturing, that Winchester had lobbied to assist in production, was given a contract for nearly 337,000 carbines. Inland also made 2.6 million Garand rifles during the war.

Five manufacturers were initially contracted to make carbines – Underwood Elliott Fisher Co. made 545,616, Quality Hardware and Machine made 359,666, Rock-Ola Manufacturing (a jukebox maker) made 228,500, and National Postal Meter (maker of postage meters) made 413,017. Quality Hardware’s successful use of subcontractors was studied by the other carbine-makers. Rock-Ola’s production was beset by problems and it didn’t receive a second contract. Irwin-Pedersen, with gunmaker John Pedersen on board, had its contract canceled after 3,542 carbines were produced and all were rejected. Saginaw Steering, a GM division, took over the contract and made 517,212. Additional production contracts were given to International Business Machine (IBM) that made 346,500 and Standard Products that made 247,100. By July 1945, more than 6 million M1 and the full-auto M2 carbines had been made.

This Irwin-Pederson M1 Carbine has a receiver made by Irwin-Pedersen between November 1942 and March 1943 and has parts from Underwood, and Rock-Ola.

America flexed its industrial might during World War 2 as companies that didn’t traditionally make firearms did just that. The idea wasn’t limited to the carbine, but also production of the M1911A1. Innovation in production processes and sub-contracting out parts for both guns brings this contest to a draw.

David Marshall Williams, whose short stroke gas piston system won Winchester the M1 Carbine design, is seen at center with Gen. Douglas McArthur to his left.

M1 Carbine Vs M1 Garand: In the Field

The M1 Carbine vs M1 Garand faceoff is less defined on the battlefield, since each platform filled distinct roles. During training, GIs learned how to quickly load the Garand without the painful experience of “Garand thumb” when the clip is pressed in and the bolt would snap forward and pinch the thumb. Despite that, reports from the field were positive.

The rifle was able to fire more accurately and quickly than the M1903 and with less fatigue since soldiers didn’t have to manipulate the bolt action and experienced less recoil. Marines warmed to the Garand, especially at Guadalcanal after they saw how much faster it could load and fire than their M1903 rifles. The Garand was also more durable, making it ideal for jungle fighting.

The Garand made a distinct “ping” sound when ejecting the spent en bloc clip. A myth arose that enemy soldiers would wait for the noise of an ejecting clip before attacking, but the noise of battle would’ve masked the distinctive ping. It also belies the fact that other soldiers would still be shooting as someone reloaded.

This Springfield Armory M1 Garand was manufactured in March 1942 and has British proof marks as a part of Lend-Lease aid to England. The British called the Garand the “Yankee Self-Loader” or YSL.

Some paratroopers assigned the Garand often jumped with it stowed between their bodies and the auxiliary parachute or else with it broken down in a bag to be retrieved upon landing. Paratroopers liked the shorter M1 Carbine and it received the M1 Carbine paratrooper stock, a folding stock that shortened it further when jumping, designating the gun the M1A1 Carbine.

The lightweight carbine was nice in tight spots like the forests of Europe and Pacific jungles, but the Garand, with its heavier-hitting ammo, found greater appreciation in open areas like northern France and into Germany. The Garand needed to be kept relatively clean so the gas cylinders wouldn’t rust.

Again, the Garand and the carbine had different roles while each excelled at the objective – killing fascists. The carbine would get a full-auto version and had greater capacity, but the Garand offered greater stopping power, would serve as a sniper rifle and was tremendously reliable, so determining which performed better in the field is a toss-up.

A U.S. Inland M1 carbine with an M1A1 paratrooper stock. The more compact version of the gun with a folding stock was designed for paratroops.

M1 Carbine Vs M1 Garand: After the War

About 500,000 Garand rifles came through Springfield Armory for refurbishment after World War 2. It was utilized by the U.S. military until being replaced by the M14 in 1957 but still served in other areas of the world and other countries. Sniper models of the Garand, the M1C and M1D, were developed late in World War 2 but not issued in large numbers. The difference between the two sniper variants were the scope mounts. They were used in the Korean War and the Marine Corps adopted the M1C as its sniper rifle in 1951. In 1953, the Garand was introduced into the National Match shooting competition. The rifle was also sold through the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

A consecutively serialized pair of U.S. Springfield M1C Garand sniper rifles with Lyman Alaskan scopes and matching numbered brackets.

The M1 and full-auto M2 Carbines saw action in Korea and even remained in use with some U.S. military units, especially Special Forces, during the Vietnam War. Police in the United States also used the M1 Carbine when it became available as surplus. About 240,000 M1 carbines were released for sale by the Director of Civilian Marksmanship in 1963 at a price of $20 each. Several countries and police forces used the carbine.

This U.S. Inland Manufacturing M1 Carbine made in 1944 comes with a M2 conversion unit registered by Desert Ordnance and is a fully transferable Class 3 firearm.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur told Congress in 1951, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away,” and that can be true for these warhorses of WW2 that have found their way to the collectors market as military surplus. Their distinguished service during World War 2 and Korea brings this argument to a close with yet another draw.

M1 Carbine vs M1 Garand at Rock Island Auction Company

RIAC offers a number of examples of the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine produced during World War 2 and after, like International Harvester, and their variants including the M1D Garand sniper rifle and the M1 Carbine paratrooper stock so World War 2 military collectors should certainly take notice.

One of the most important American guns of the 20th century, the M1 Garand was a U.S. infantry mainstay through WW2 and beyond. This U.S. Springfield example is serial number "1500000".

Sources:

"The M1 Garand," by Leroy Thompson

"The M1 Carbine," by Leroy Thompson