The second prototype competed successfully against all remaining carbine candidates in September 1941, and Winchester was notified of their success the next month.
Williams participated in the finishing of this prototype. Īfter the initial Army testing in August 1941, the Winchester design team set out to develop a more refined version. The prototype was an immediate hit with army observers. This patchwork prototype was cobbled together using the trigger housing and lockwork of a Winchester M1905 rifle and a modified Garand operating rod. Roemer, Fred Humeston and three other Winchester engineers under supervision of Edwin Pugsley, and was essentially Williams' last version of the. The first model was developed at Winchester in 13 days by William C. Major René Studler of Ordnance believed the rifle design could be scaled down to a carbine which would weigh 4.5 to 4.75 lb (2.0–2.2 kg) and demanded a prototype as soon as possible. Winchester had contacted the Ordnance Department to examine their rifle M2 design.
M1941 JOHNSON STOCK CRACK SERIES
Ordnance found unsatisfactory the first series of prototype carbines submitted by several firearms companies and some independent designers. By May 1941, Williams had shaved the M2 rifle prototype from about 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) to a mere 7.5 lb (3.4 kg). As a result, the rifle was redesigned to incorporate a Garand-style rotating bolt and operating rod, retaining Williams' short-stroke piston. After the Marine Corps semi-automatic rifle trials in 1940, Browning's rear-locking tilting bolt design proved unreliable in sandy conditions. Williams incorporated his short-stroke piston in the existing design. Winchester, after Williams' release, had hired Williams on the strength of recommendations of firearms industry leaders and hoped Williams would be able to complete various designs left unfinished by Ed Browning, including the Winchester. A couple of months after Ed Browning's death in May 1939, Winchester hired David Marshall "Carbine" Williams who had begun work on a short-stroke gas piston design while serving a prison sentence at a North Carolina minimum-security work farm. The rifle originated as a design by Jonathan "Ed" Browning, brother of the famous firearm designer John Browning. Winchester at first did not submit a carbine design, as it was occupied in developing the. In 1938, the Chief of Infantry requested that the Ordnance Department develop a "light rifle" or carbine, though the formal requirement for the weapon type was not approved until 1940.
Paratroopers were also added to the list of intended users and a folding-stock version would also be developed. Army decided that a carbine-type weapon would adequately fulfill all of these requirements, and specified that the new arm should weigh no more than 5 pounds (2.3 kg) and have an effective range of 300 yards (270 m). This request called for a compact, lightweight defensive weapon with greater range, accuracy and firepower than a handgun, while weighing half as much as the Thompson submachine gun or the M1 rifle. Īdditionally, Germany's use of glider-borne and paratrooper forces to launch surprise ‘blitzkrieg’ attacks behind the front lines generated a request for a new compact infantry weapon to equip support troops. Many soldiers found the rifle slid off the shoulder unless slung diagonally across the back, where it prevented the wearing of standard field packs and haversacks. During pre-war and early war field exercises, it was found that the M1 Garand impeded these soldiers' mobility, as a slung rifle would frequently catch on brush or hit the back of the helmet and tilt it over the eyes. Army Ordnance Department received reports that the full-size M1 rifle was too heavy and cumbersome for most support troops (staff, artillerymen, radiomen, etc.) to carry.
The soldier on the far right is holding an M1 carbine anti-tank crew in combat in the Netherlands, November 4, 1944.
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