24 April 2024 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

FN workers assemble or disassemble M1 Garand rifles.

One rather inconvenient truth for some of the M1 rifle and carbine parts assemblers of today is that FN was actually contracted by the U.S. government to rebuild all of U.S. small arms utilized in the European theatre at war’s end. And FN did it while leaving only photographic evidence but not a trail for collectors to follow.

The Fabrique Nationale factory at Herstal, near Liege, Belgium, was liberated by Allied troops in September 1944, and despite losses in manpower and equipment—as well as later ”buzz bomb” attacks—FN went back to work. The U.S. Army first contracted with FN during the Battle of the Bulge, and 400,000 mud-grips for Sherman tanks were cast in FN’s foundry. Other orders included manufacturing 5,000 sheet-metal gas cans, which were in short supply and urgently needed.