By 1942 standards, it was a semi-automatic sweetheart.
Ultimately, the M3 fighting knife was transformed into the M4 bayonet for use on the M1 Carbine.
The official design appears to follow along with improvised bayonets created in the field.
This field-made bayonet for the M1 Carbine was created by Marines on Bougainville during the Solomon Islands campaign in November 1943. Image: NARA
In the spring of 1945, a semi-official clip carrier was introduced in small numbers in Germany.
he U.S. War Departments Combat Lessons No.
Cut-Down Carbine
Units with access to tools often experimented with converting an M1 Carbine to full-auto fire.
A wooden mock-up of the “new light carbine” is shown, complete with a taped-on bayonet. The photo was taken at Fort Benning on January 22, 1942. Image: NARA
It seems likely that the G.I.
field modifications were popular enough for postwar manufacturers to productize them.
Back in 2006, I published a photo study of the M1 Carbine in action.
A field-made flash hider-compensator fitted to an M1 Carbine in the Philippines during early 1945. Image: NARA
In the summer of that year, I sat down with renowned gun researcher Dolf Goldsmith.
All of the materials were readily available, and the conversion was relatively simple to complete.
I reviewed the bandolier-sling photos with theleading M1 Carbine expert, the late Larry Ruth.
The carbine “Clip Carrier” is seen here with a member of the 278th Field Artillery Battalion in Germany. Image: NARA
That makes perfect sense.
But I wonder why it exists at all?
I thought about it a bit and concluded that I had not.
A close-up of the “clip carrier” attached to a M1 Carbine. The carrier held three 15-round magazines. Image: NARA
Even today, you might find examples of 15-round magazines that are still unopened in their factory wraps.
It was the mathematics of production and distribution of M1 Carbine magazines that wasnt adding up for Larry.
Ordnance problem with distribution.
The M1 Carbine was occasionally cut down to “pistol-size”. This example has the barrel cut down with enough left over to retain space for the front sight. Image: NARA
Army units used the same modification.
A paratrooper of the 11th Airborne Division has a bandolier-sling on his M1 Carbine during the Battle of Leyte in December 1944. Image: NARA
A Marine ordnance man displays the bandolier-style sling modification on Okinawa in 1945. Image: NARA
U.S. Marines posing with a captured Arisaka rifle (left) and an M1 Carbine equipped with a bandolier sling. The photo was taken on Okinawa in 1945. Image: NARA
A Marine with a Victrola record player that was captured from the Japanese on Okinawa. His M1 Carbine has both a bandolier-sling and a two-magazine stock pouch. Image: NARA
