September 1941 - Lend Lease M1 Rifle

[garand123]

Before I begin, I owe our good friend Jim a huge thank you for giving me the opportunity to own this gem. A year later and I'm still loving it!

This particular example is 1 of about 38,000 which was sent to the English during the lend lease program before the United States entered the war. It is manufactured in September of 1941 and for this reason, displays a number of early "obsolete" parts which were quickly replaced on later examples. It is my understanding that the vast majority of M1 Rifles which were manufactured at this time were lost in the jungles of the Pacific Theater so the lend leased rifles are often considered to be the closest thing we have today to snap shots of M1 production during late 1941 to early 1942.

For the most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking, but there are a few interesting characteristics worth noting. First is the early GHS cartouched stock. These were used from late 1940 to mid 1942, but what I personally like about this example is that it is a long channel. We believe the transition from long to short channel was made around s/n 400,000 but that is just a rough approximation. Perhaps some of the senior members here on the forum have more definitive info at their finger tips?

Carrying on, the next few interesting bits are the short pinion flush nut rear sight assembly, with checkered elevation knob (which pre-dates lock bar sights). The half rounded firing pin in the 2 SA bolt, the uncut 3SA operating rod, grooved rear hand guard clip, narrow base gas cylinder with front sight seal intact and early trigger guard with drawing numbers.

Finally I'll note that this rifle does not have any red paint on the hand guard, but is easily recognized as a lend lease when the operating rod has been pulled back. Here you'll find a slew of British markings.

So without further delay, here are some photos.

- Chris

Information

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[RCS]

Nice example of a pre war M1 Rifle, I have data sheets on s/n 329128 and 328259 and both rifle stocks also have the small crossed cannon stamp while my data sheet on 328891 shows a large crossed cannon stamp. All have the SA 8-41 barrel date too.

[Bob Seijas]

$79.95 in 1959 or $89.95 for near mint selection.

[Charlie303]

That's a really great looking rifle, thanks for posting.

According to Bruce Canfield, the lease-lend M1s only got proofed and Brit stamped when they were shipped back to USA in the 1960s. But he doesn't say why. Maybe some rule about exporting firearms.

[Bob Seijas]

English law, any guns exported from Britain had to be proofed. Interarms bought the Lend Lease M1s in 1957/8 and they were proofed in 1958/9. First US sales were early '59 at the prices I quoted. Just finished an article for the GCA Journal on them, slotted it for the Summer or Fall issue depending on space available.

[RCS]

Some of the best Lend Lease M1 rifles came from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago. I knew Milt Klein and bought a Lend Lease M1 directly from him (I still have this rifle too) . Klein got out of the retail business shortly after the Kennedy/Oswald tragedy as the Carcano was purchased by mail order from Kleins.

[Bob Seijas]

Did it still have the red paint when you bought it, Robert, or was it already cleaned off?

[garand123]

Here's something I didn't initially notice until I started photographing the rifle. It appears to have the faintest impression of the BNP w/ crown on the bolt and receiver. At first I didn't clue into what the "smudges" were until I flipped through Garands in the King's Service .

[Bob Seijas]

Yes, regs called for a crown and BNP in those two places. I'm guessing the dies lasted about five whacks on those hardened receivers. Many imports with the proofs up front between the rings of the gas cylinder don't have them at all, so maybe they just bagged it at the end.

[DocAV]

The British (Commercial) Proof marks only prove that the said rifle passed "in trade" through the UK. It has Nothing to do with "Lend-Lease."

Interarms (Sam Cummings) set up in England in order to buy a lot of rifles from the British Gov't in the 1950s, by Buying up Cogswell and Harrison.( only British based companies could tender).
The Hundreds of thousands of Lee-Enfields etc purchased, at an average Price of 2 shillings & 6 pence, were held at a Warehouse in Manchester, where a Branch of the Birmingham Proof House did all the "Trade Proofs" of over a Million rifles over time (British, European, Latin American, etc).
IA acquired Garands from all over Europe at that time, as Nations were upgrading to FNFAL or G3 etc. Unless one has definitive serial number proof that a particular Garand was a "Lend Lease" delivery, the question is "Moot" and should not be entertained.

Whilst most Foreign Firearms entering British service would carry Enfield Inspection marks
( such as the Colt and S&W revolvers of both the First and Second world wars), I don't know if the Garands, Springfields, and M17s sent to England did get the Enfield marks.

Maybe they just didn't have the time nor the manpower to do it???

IN any case, an Enfield Inspection/acceptance mark (Crown & number) would confirm "Official" British acceptance, but its absence does not mean a negative...
also, Garands were coming and going from Britain...the Canadians at Dieppe were armed with Garands, and some were also dropped to Resistance fighters all over Europe (But the Bren and the Sten were the preferred firearms of Partizan Groups ).

The whole "Lend-Lease" question regarding Britain is very obscure...Britain did buy a Lot of equipment "Cash and Carry" (by Gold reserves) before the Lend Lease Act...it was only when the Gold reserves were exhausted (mid-1941) that Roosevelt pushed the Lend Lease Act through Congress.

So, before claiming a Garand M1 is "Lend-Lease," just because it has British Proofs (Trade) on it, is Misleading...supporting evidence of Serial Number Records and or "Enfield acceptance" is required to satisfy Provenance.

Doc AV