After the Great War, in which American troops were sent into combat with either the bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle or the bolt-action British Enfield, planners in the War Department realized that, if the United States were ever drawn in combat again, they would need a far superior weapon.
The M1 became one of the most popular of all military weapons. Per Army specifications, the rifle would be a long-stroke gas piston-operated, eight-round, clip-fed rifle that used the same .30-06 cartridge as the ’03 and Enfield.
In 1924, one of Springfield’s engineers, Quebec-born (in 1888) John Cantius Garand, began working on a concept for a lightweight semi-automatic rifle. In 1934, what became the M1 was patented by the Springfield (MA) Arsenal (which began making military firearms during the Revolutionary War) and two years later a contract was awarded to Springfield, which would eventually turn out 4.5 million copies.
