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Garand rifle
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Garand rifle
Quick Facts
Also called:
M1 rifle
Key People:
John C. Garand
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Garand rifle
Garand rifle Garand rifle, 1945.

Garand rifle

weapon
Also known as: M1 rifle
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Garand rifle, semiautomatic, gas-operated .30-calibre rifle adopted by the U.S. Army in 1936. It was developed by John C. Garand, a civilian engineer employed at the Springfield Armory, Springfield, Mass. The Garand was the first semiautomatic military rifle used as a standard combat shoulder weapon. It was the basic U.S. infantry weapon in both World War II and the Korean War. More than 5,000,000 M1s were manufactured.

The Garand weighed 9.5 pounds (4.3 kg) and was fed from an eight-round clip. Its 24-inch (61-centimetre) barrel was rifled with four grooves. Located next to the muzzle on the underside of the barrel was the small gas port that fed some of the propellant gases into a small cylinder that operated the autoloading mechanism.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.