The M1 Garand During The Second World War

The M1's early performance problems gave it such a bad reputation that after the 1939 National Matches, the National Rifle Association was able to get Congress to look at the problem. A major redesign was ordered on October 26, 1939 and Garand redesigned the rifle to operate with gases tapped from a gas

The machine gun was created by John Moses Browning. Its design is similar to the Vickers machine gun. The gun features a .30 caliber cartridges and a rate of fire of 450-600 rounds per minute (Duffy). When John M. Browning created the M1917, the U.S. military adores it so much that it is still being used by the military today. The machine gun was installed on fighter planes, tanks, and as anti-air weapons (Armstrong).

This weapon was typically on a tripod to steady the bouncing that came with automatic fire. One of the more unpredictable attacks came from the Arisaka Bolt-Action Rifle. Rifles were recognized in WWII for their long range and accuracy. This gun could be used with or without a scope. When scoped, range was greatly increased, as the shooter could see farther distances and put a round down range with precision. Though this wasn’t the primary weapon for most of the soldiers, it was favored by snipers for its precision at long ranges.

A Rifle could shoot a bullet up to 1,000 yards–and were more accurate. However, until the 1850s it was nearly impossible to use these guns in battle because, since a rifle’s bullet had roughly the same diameter as its barrel, they took too long to load. (Soldiers sometimes had to pound the bullet into the barrel with a mallet.)

World War 1 or the Great War was one of the most brutal if not the most war the world has faced so far. It originated in Europe which quickly went global, the war started on the 28th of July 1914 and ended November 11th 1918. The war consisted of many weapons and deadly gases. The weapons include;

Weapons in WW1 could decide who would win and who would lose. Newer weapons were brought into the War constantly as they were the most efficient in destroying and making other weapons useless. Making them more powerful for this reason making the death count rise double- time, however, not for long…

Hiram Maxim created Machine Gun and in 1883, he created the first multi bullet-firing weapon. This lead to wider development of automatic weapons which were later used in war. (Note: the 1862 Gatling gun which was ran by hand cranking.)

In wars prior to the Civil War, soldiers wielded weapons such as the musket which shot only one bullet at a time. Though these types of weaponry could shoot as far as 250 yards, they were inconvenient and wasted time. To even aim at the target accurately one had to be 80 yards away. Similarly to muskets, rifles were inconvenient because they took a while to reload because the bullet was almost the same size of the barrel and again, wasted time. Bullets with a pointed tip were created in 1848 by Claude Minie. Because the diameter of the bullets were smaller than the barrel, soldiers could put them into the gun quicker and more effectively. With Minie’s bullets, rifles were simpler to reload but still had to be reloaded with one bullet at a time. That unprotected gap of time made soldiers more vulnerable so in 1849 a repeating rifle called the Volitional Repeater was patented by Walter Hunt. They were popularized in 1863 during the Civil War. By this time many models were being sold but the most common one was the Spencer Carbine which could shoot seven bullets in just 30 seconds. These, like most Civil War era weapons, were produced and used by the North, but not

A smooth-bore musket is a type of gun that is smooth on the inside. The bullet is pushed through the smooth barrel and can be launched about eighty yards. A rifled musket has a groove and is spiraled in the inside. The actually bullet is closer to the trigger and can shoot four hundred yards. These two different guns bring their own importance to the war because of the new, easy way killing someone became. The rifled musket seemed more effective in the long run, but the smooth-bore musket was just as useful. 620,000 Americans died (although a majority of the death was caused by disease) during this tragic war.

In the early 1900s there was not very much technology behind weaponry and transportation to help the soldiers fight. A typical soldier would have been issued a standard rifle called the Krag Jorgensen M1896 Carbine.

Another very powerful gun that was used in World War II was the Submarine guns. The submarine guns are much stronger and better than normal guns due to the fact that they have better firing distances (Military History 7). The submarine gun was built mainly for endurance and for accuracy. This gun had the accuracy to fire from 800 to at least 1,000 yards away and delivers a powerful blow to its victims. One problem which the gun had was the fact that it could dislocate a soldiers arm whenever it was fired. But finally the submarine gun was improved and is now less powerful which makes it easier for firing full automatic rounds along with pistol rounds (8).

In Document A, it is said that “ the development of weapons like the Model 1861 Percussion Rifle-Musket resulted in a battlefield transformation.” (Doc A).

Although the M-16 was very easy to use in the field, some of the U.S. Armies Special Forces used a gun very similar to the M-16. The XM-177E2 or more commonly the "colt commando" or the CAR-15, had telescoping stock for easy handling and could be used more like an SMG instead of an assault rifle which made the CAR-15 a great choice for combat situations where fighting would be extremely close. Although it was popular with Special Forces the CAR-15 saw very limited use with normal battalion units.

British and Commonwealth troops relied on the Vickers and the Bren machine guns, which had been used in the Second World War, but were also introduced to the new American Super Bazooka, which was more effective at penetrating heavy tank armour. New Centurion tanks were used alongside

In the years around 1944 a handful of assault rifles were created, such as the Sturmgewehr 44 or StG44 (German), The M1 Grand (American) and The SKS (Russian). But the most memorable and arguably the best is the AK-47 or Kalashnikov. The AK-47