re: M1 Garand at Pearl Harbour

[x westie]

Does anyone have information, whether the M1 was issued to the troops stationed in Hawaii, prior to the attack on Pearl Harbour, i have seen many photos of Marines, and Army with the 03 Springfield, i know the troops in the Phillipines had M1's in limited numbers.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

If you look into the Gas Trap Garand by Pyle, he shows a Gas trap M1 that came from Hawaii and was destroyed by a modern shooter.

[Mark in Rochester]

Unpublished, young defenders beside a mounted machine gun, Hawaii, Dec. 1941
Garrison PeriodAssigned 1922-10-17 to the Hawaiian Division, and stationed at Schofield Barracks.
Divisional assignment changed on 1941-08-26 from the Hawaiian Division to the 24th Infantry Division.
[edit] World War IIDeployed forward from Hawaii on 1943-07-30.

Sneak Attack: Small Arms at Pearl Harbor - The Ayoob Files
FindArticles / Sports / American Handgunner / Jan-Feb, 2002
by Massad Ayoob Page 2

The mix of weapons caused a problem, as the Springfield could be loaded with separate cartridges or with an issue five-round stripper clip, while the Garand became a single shot unless the shooter was equipped with eight-round en bloc clips.

Recalls Marine Private Le Fan, who was with a group that had been issued the then-high-tech semiautomatics, "This sergeant put us behind a retaining wall approximately four feet high, facing the harbor. Somehow he got hold of about six bandoliers of '03 ammunition that was in 03 clips. We were all armed, 10 of us with M-1 rifles, the M-1 Garand, semiautomatic, .30 caliber. They would fire the '03 ammo, but we had to have a special eight-round clip to go into the M-1, and we were given bandoliers of 03 ammunition, with five-round clips. I opened the receiver of my Garand and put one round into the chamber and closed it... I recall one Jap pilot coming over, and he waved at us as he did. He was very low-- less than 100 feet high-- because he was going to Battleship Row. They would wave at us, and we were throwing .30 caliber rounds at them as fast as we could, from single shots because we could not fire semiautomatic. I fired 60 rounds, because I recall this particular bandolier that I got had 60 rounds in it."

[x westie]

Thanks for the info & great photo, i have never seen this one before