Word: combatants
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Ford rearmament projects include contracts for 1,500 Army bantam combat cars ("Blitz buggies") and, far more important, for 4,200 Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp engines. The Blitz buggies had already begun to roll off the assembly line, but the new $22,000,000 plant to house production of the aircraft engines was still abuilding. Work on it ceased when A.F. of L. construction workers refused to venture past the C.I.O. picket lines...
...practical purposes the tryout resolved into a contest between 1) the Garand and Springfield, and 2) the different systems of combat fire which each represented. The old-fashioned Springfield puts down a sure but comparatively slow fire (12-15 aimed shots a minute, for an average rifleman), is therefore the darling of those who believe with Colonel William Prescott of Bunker Hill ("Don't fire until you see the white of their eyes") in deliberate, sharpshooting marksmanship. The Garand, 3 to 3½ times faster, is therefore the logical choice of those who put high fire power above all else...
After boiling down results of all the tests for accuracy, ruggedness, general fitness for combat, the board rated the rifles: 1) Springfield; 2) Garand; 3) Johnson; 4) Winchester. Best that the board could say for the Garand was that it was "superior to the other semi-automatic rifles"; "superior in the number of well-aimed shots that can be fired per minute"; could be quickly cleaned in the field. Sum and substance of the findings was that the Garand was a fair-weather rifle, excellent on the practice range but far from good enough for the Marines when the going...
...board assumed that "troops have landed through heavy surf sufficient to break completely over men and equipment, and immediately engage in combat on a sandy beach." Results: both Garands failed to operate as semi-automatic rifles (i.e., reload automatically after each round). One failed completely and the firer had to hammer the bolt with a mallet; "the other operated by hand with extreme difficulty." The Springfields continued to work, with slight difficulty. On these salt water tests, the Garand was rated last, the Springfield first. (See pictures of how bullets are made...
...meeting Kenneth T. Young '39 teaching fellow in Government, spoke to the members of the Liberal Union about the tactics of Red organizations, and how the H.L.U. could combat them...