Inland M1 Carbin - 6/44 D-Day

[emmagee1917]

Many units that were scattered across England were moved nearer the kick-off point for them , some as much as a week or two before D-day. Once there , they were restricted to those grounds . No leave , no nothing. They needed something to keep them sane and to help boost moral . These are the one's I recall getting the brand new rifles . Busy unpacking , degreasing , cleaning , sighting in , etc. , I'm sure it was as much busy work as replacing worn gear . I'm sure that if the commander didn't want to do this , they wouldn't .

Did the 2nd ID have to spend week(s) pinned up before the landing or did they move pretty quickly ?
The '03s here look to have front sights , so they're prob'ly not A4s . I just read the rifle grenade manual , FM 23-30 from 14 Feb 1944 . It explains that the M7 (m1 Garand ) launcher and the M15 sight was just starting to be issued around this time. Canfield's book explains that while some M7s had been made as early as mid '43 , production was very slow and did not really take off till spring of '44 . Also the sights of the M1 and 03A3 were not suited for grenade launching like the 1903's ladder sight and so the M15 sight was needed. These also were not in production till Feb '44 . So , yes , I think most units still used the '03 on D-day and a while later . It is wierd that even with the new M15 sights , the grenade charts ( even later ones ) were locked into the 30* / 45* / 60* angles that were marked by bands on the rifle sling in the early days.
Chris