This American Weapon of WW2 Was More Common Than the M1 Garand

In this video, Survive History presenter Louee Dessent looks at the M1 carbine - the most produced American weapon of WW2. While regular GIs carried the M1 Garand rifle, the M1 carbine was issued to specialist and non-combat troops. Over 6 million were produced during the Second World War.

[SwedishmafiaMemeCorporation]

The thing is, the "weaker cartridge" was still more than sufficient. The "lower engagement distance" of about 200 yards was still within the range in which the majority of small arms combat encounters happened.

[HDSME]

Why do people underestimate m1 carbines!!! Fantastic weapon .30 carbine is deadly!!

[Chiller]

WW2 footage shows a surprising number of M1 carbines in use by frontline troops. Some were swapping out their heavy Garands for the lighter, handier carbine.

[DixonUrMom]

I have a General Motors one made in 1942. My grandfather carried it in Korea. It got “lost”

[Operation_C]

It's important to dwell for a second on the "replacing the pistol" part of this. While your local expert marksman could probably shoot pistols reliably at 50 yards, soldiers were lucky to be combat effective at 10. With the second line men receiving M1 carbines, they were now more useful than a bucket of warm spit during front line breakthroughs.

[jasonmiller]

My Dad served in the National Guard in the early 50's. He said he was jealous of the officers that carried the light weight M1 carbine. He hated carrying his heavy M1 Garand.

[aircraftnut]

I tell you this much I would not want to get shot by the “much weaker round”

[michaelabratzel]

Exactly 6, 121, 309 were made. Bit over three million by the giant general motors. The other half by 8 other companies.

[zacharyleonard]

the .30 carbine still has about 2x the energy of a 9mm bullet. It's more than enough to make it someone's last day.

[ssconver]

There are M1 carbines still putting down white tail every fall in the U.S. using iron sights inside 80 yards.

[digitalworms]

My grandfather loved the m1 carbine even bought one when he got home from the war! He was a radio operator in the Korean war!

[fishlife]

2 or 3 my ass the 30 carbine has the same power as a 357 magnum point blank at 100 yards and a effective range of almost 300 yards

[hatuletoh]

Just last weekend I took my grandfather's 83 year old carbine out and ran 110 rounds of 81 year old ammo through it using two comparatively modern 73 year old magazines that still have their original springs. Every round fired flawlessly--not a single malfunction or failure, and after two clicks of the rear sight to the left I was hitting spot on at 100 feet. To be fair, that carbine only saw action during the Aleutian Campaign. After that my grandfather, who was an artillery captain, stashed the carbine in his foot locker and found himself a Garand. Because after surviving the bonzai charge on Attu and seeing a Japanese solider get up after he'd shot him with the carbine, my grandfather decided he wanted a gun powerful enough to, as he put it, keep a man down with one shot of I got lucky enough to actually hit him. And so eventually that carbine ended up with me, along with an Arisaka rifle from that bonzai charge on Attu, and a Nambu pistol from the Battle of Luzon.

[item]

"Maybe 2 or 3 rounds.."
Dude I owned an M1 carbine: 1 round will do you. You should check the muzzles energy of the 0.30 round. Miles better than having a pistol if you're in a tight spot.

[facepalm]

And stayed in service well into Vietnam. The m2 model also had select fire capabilities too

[apolloperez]

Did you know that The Greatest Soldier Ever, Audie Murphy, used the M1 Carbine as his weapon.

[shockwave]

A lot of riflemen were seen carrying them too. This happened so often because many infantrymen would trade their M1 Garand to truck and half-track drivers for their M1 Carbine since the drivers and vehicle crew didn't need the weight savings like the ground pounders. The M1 Thompson and M3 Grease Gun were the preferred close defense weapons of armor crews because those were even smaller than the M1 Carbine while putting out more Lead in an overrun situation.

[robertruff]

My Grandpa carried one of these. He was a combat engineer in the3rd Army.❤ HE was a GREAT MAN!!!

[Ludwig_Cox]

I'd take the m1 carbine because 99.9% of the time you would have to carry your rifle around with you without fighting so much more practical

[BigDaddyDak]

Did bro just say a .30 cal would take 2-3 rounds to knock someone down? 😂