MiniArt 35329 U.S. Infantry Weapons & Equipment

The M1 Garand rifle is an American semi-automatic rifle from the interwar period, World War II and the post-war period. The first prototypes of the weapon were created in 1928, and mass production was carried out in the years 1934-1957. In total, about 5.5 million pieces of this weapon were created. The initial velocity of the projectile fired from this weapon was up to 825 m / s, and the effective shot range was around 400 meters. The practical rate of fire, with a well-trained shooter, was about 30 rounds per minute. The weight of the unloaded weapon is 4.3 kilograms, and its total length was 1.1 meters.

The M1 rifle was developed by John Garand, after whom the weapon took its name. It was the first semi-automatic rifle, used on a mass scale in the US Army and replaced the Springfield M1903 bolt-action rifle as the basic armament of an infantry soldier, which in turn was modeled on the German Gewehr 98 rifle. The weapon was initially adopted by soldiers and officers with considerable reserve, but in During World War II, it showed its many advantages - most of all, high reliability, a much better rate of fire compared to repeating rifles, and was generally considered a highly successful design. There were also numerous specialized versions - mainly M1C and M1D, which were intended for sharpshooters. The M1 Garand rifle played a major role during World War II and the Korean War (1950-1953) as the primary weapon of the US Army and US Marine Corps. It was replaced only in 1957 by the M14 rifle.