Best Battle Rifle of World War II

[swanshot]

Originally Posted by Charlie the sniper

Four pints a day........Fosters or Castlemaine xxxx.

My dad had the opposite, wet clothes,damp food..............Burma, jungle.
Not to mention those blood sucking parasite's .....Officer's!

Actually, one of the blokes made a home brew of sorts. Problem was he used what he could find as a brew tank, which turned out to be a zinc lined drum. Damn near killed several blokes.

I've read the story and one of my girlfriends father served in Burma, and told me some of it. That was a bad, bad place to be.

[Pistolenschutze]

Originally Posted by swanshot

When the war started, or so I've heard it said, the Britian, and her dominions brought up just about every leaf of tea that was avaliable on the world market An empty stew tin, couple of small holes punched in the bottom, fill it with sand, pour in petrol would boil a pint of water for tea just perfectly.

That's a true story, Swanie. The Germans really missed the boat on the tea thing. To defeat Britain, all they had to do was cut off Britain's tea supplies before the war. Of course, they would probably have had to cut off Churchill's whiskey supply as well . . .

[sewerman]

that's a difficult decision with all the garand lovers.

as much as i think i should chose the M-1, the enfield no1 MK III is light,
classy, accurate, smooth and easier to repair.
i'll go with the enfield even if it isn't as fun to shoot as a semi.

sewerman

[redtail1949]

Just going by what my uncle told me, he served in the 1st Cavalry Division in the Pacific. He was seriously wounded freeing a prison in Manila. Shot 9 times and had grenade fragments head to toe on the backside.

Yep he lived through it but did not get out of hospital for 2 1/2 years.

Back to what he told me...

They were issued 1903 Springfields and he stated that killed and killed well at long range or short. If a Jap had a pack or something on it did not matter ther trusted 30.06 round would penetrate and kill them with a kill zone hit.They were very accurate however, because of the jungle long shots were few and far between. As good as it was it left a lot to be desired if they were rushed by the Japs. They were not fast enough and did not have the firepower in round capacity in most situations.

The M1 Carbine was very light to carry but was "a piss poor killer" those were his words. He said it would usually take two or more hits to drop the Japs unless the head was hit or spine. It would not penetrate a heavy pack and kill or even barriers that the 06 would.

The M1 Garand was seldom seen but some were in by enterprizeing traders or scroungers that ran into some Marines or Navy boys while unloading supplies offship. They were the most coveted and sought after rifles that the US had. Ease and speed of reloading and the 30.06 Caliber gave them a lot more firepower when under attack. Of cousre this was about rifles but he said give him the .45 Thompson over them all.

Another thing he did say was that a lot of Soldiers used the British Enfield when they had one in preference to the Springfield. They were around the Austrailian Troops quite often and said they would fire their Enfields so fast at times they thought they were shooting machine guns. He said it was a very effective caliber with killing power equal to the 30.06 fast to operate fast to reload and held more rounds than the Springfield.

Under combat conditions they would use what they could get authorized or not, after engagements the officers would force them back to the Springfields.

So I guess you could say the M1 Garand was his opinion the best the British 303 2nd the Springfield 3rd and the puny carbine dead last as far as the rifles go.

[green_metalflake]

From the list, the Garand. From my list the FG42 only because it looks cool. I've wanted one since I was ~12 and saw it in a WW2 German small arms book. Maybe someday the repro will be available here in the USA?

BD42.1

[Arisaka99]

The STG-44 was the best rifle of WWII. It was the great grand pappy of all modern military firearms. It set the standard for the future. I think that the Mosin Nagant is my pick with these choices. They are by far the cheapest to produce and had an extremely high kill ratio with snipers. Did I mention they were cheap to produce? Also, they were cheap.

Remember:
"Quantity has a quality of all it's own"

[swanshot]

Originally Posted by Arisaka99

The STG-44 was the best rifle of WWII. It was the great grand pappy of all modern military firearms. It set the standard for the future. I think that the Mosin Nagant is my pick with these choices. They are by far the cheapest to produce and had an extremely high kill ratio with snipers. Did I mention they were cheap to produce? Also, they were cheap.

Remember:
"Quantity has a quality of all it's own"

Parsimonious bugger, arn't ya?

[Vasily Zaytsev]

I'd like to share with you all what my Father said. He joined in 42 and served though 48 in the Pacific.

He was a BAR operator. Several times it over heated, and or had a stoppage. He would throw it down, grab an M1 Garand and keep fighting until he found another BAR.

His words still ring true today:

" When your in a jam, grab an M1 Garand, It wont"

[whitemach]

Originally Posted by Vasily Zaytsev

I'd like to share with you all what my Father said. He joined in 42 and served though 48 in the Pacific.

His words still ring true today:

" When your in a jam, grab an M1 Garand, It wont"

i like that ,,,,should be on a plaque

[corsair]

M1 Garand. My love affair started in 52 and has never ended

[swanshot]

That's a nice collection Corsair. I've only ever handled, and fired one in my life. Impressed the hell outa me.
My Father served in New guinea and Borneo during WW11, and whenever they could steal a garand off the yanks they did Problem for them was ammo. If they wern't around the yanks they soon ran out and had to go back to the trusty SMLE.
Now I'm not knockin the SMLE, they were a great combat rifle, but for sheer firepower the garand had it all over.
Just as a point of interest The Aussies avoided the 303 Jungle carbines, they were too unpleasant to fire, and often had accuracy problems caused by milling too much metal off the action, in the interest of reducing weight.

[miker22]

Garand. Everything else a distant second.