Customer Reviews

Book of the Garand

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If there is anything in the world you want to know about the M1 Garand, this is the book. If you have a Garand, this book is a must.

The development process of the M1 Garand rifle is detailed in this book. The problems of developing a reliable semi-auto full power military rifle are detailed. The attempts, the failures, the successes, the problems, the solutions, all are there. The book gives insights into inventor John Garand's genius and the manufacturing/military process. The result is what Patton called "The greatest battle implement ever developed." A must for collectors and afficiando's. See also Scott Duff's books on collecting this rifle.

Any modern day gun-bug reading Julian S. Hatcher's resume can hardly help but drool. This dude lived during what had to have been the golden age of military small arms development, and seemed to always land a job involving some fascinating aspect of the rapidly advancing technology. No wonder he stayed in the military so long. I can't think of any modern writer that even comes close to the experience and technical background he had.

This book gives very complete information about the development, functioning, and use of the Garand rifle up to the end of World War 2. Of course there were more changes made to the gun around the Korean War and even up through the 1960's that Hatcher could not foresee, but those would mainly be of interest to the more meticulous collector types anyway. Hatcher gives an insider's account of the long struggle to find a good semi-automatic rifle, and touches on many other interesting designs that were cast aside along the way.

As a former reviewer said, "If you have a Garand, this book is a must."

Major General Julian S. Hatcher is not just another author writing about just another rifle. He is talking about the rifle designed by John C. Garand (pronounced with a hard 'g', as in 'go,' with the accent on the first syllable, to rhyme with parent.) The rifle's name, however, is usually pronounced 'guh-RAND' by the men who used it.

And General Hatcher was in on the development of the famous old (WWII and Korea) rifle from the beginning.

This is the rifle to which General George S. Patton referred, when he said, "The greatest battle implement ever devised by man!"

During the Second World War, the United States Army and the U.S. Marines (except in the very beginning, in the Philippines) were equipped with this rifle, and thus were the only combatants on either side equipped with a semi-automatic main battle rifle. With it, they could fire eight rounds of .30-'06 ammunition as fast as they could pull the trigger. When the ammunition in the clip was exhausted, the clip popped clear with a 'tinny' sound, and they simply shoved another in, and kept firing.

For a time, their enemies though they were all equipped with machine guns. And, the rifle was accurate and rugged. It would take punishment, and keep right on shooting.

Everything you could conceivably need to know about the "U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1" is in this book: the history of its development and trials, general description, the sights, the operation, care and cleaning, disassembly and assembly, malfunctions and stoppages, ammunition, its use in World War Two, its use as a match rifle, and detailed photographs and drawings of its component parts.

I own one. I earned the right to buy a Garand from the givernment by competing in a sanctioned rifle match, going through an FBI investigation and clearance, and filling out a bunch of government paperwork. Then I purchased it from the Department of Civilian Marksmanship, and the postman delivered it to my door.

Before I got it, I bought this book.

You can get one too, the same way I did, from the Civilian Marksmanship Program (a government program, run by civilians, out of Port Clinton, Ohio.) See your local gun club for details.

Joseph Pierre,
Author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

This is a must have for the US Military Arms collector. It goes into great detail about the development of what became the .30 caliber, US Rifle, M1, otherwise known as the M1 Garand. It is a fascinating behind the scenes journey telling what is involved in developing a new class of rifle. It emphasizes that there is a lot more to developing a rifle than merely putting the appropriate sized barrel onto a new receiver.

The book describes the use and abuse testing that goes into qualifying the rifle for use by the troops. It also mentions the many occasions when particular versions of a promising rifle were issued to the troops for actual field testing. The M1 Garand also underwent a grueling series of tests with three other rifles, the Johnson and Winchester semi-automatic rifles and the venerable Model of 1903 Springfield. All chambered the same 30'06 cartridge.

Chambering and surviving the pressures produced by the 30'06 cartridge was the major challenge to be overcome in developing a semi-automatic battle rifle within the size and weight constraints for the average infantryman. There had been semi-automatic rifles before the M1 Garand but they were primarily using lower pressure ammunition. Many semi-automatic rifle inventors submitted designs but they were either too heavy, fell apart during firing, or both. Many inventors submitted rifles with parts looking more at home in a typewriter than in battle-field ready rifle.

John C. Garand came from the machine tool design industry. He thought that he could do a better job than many of the current weapons designers. He designed his rifles with a primary focus on how the parts would be easily manufactured with the machine tools then available.

The book describes the path that he followed that led to his employment at the Federal Government's Springfield Armory [it was disbanded in about 1968 after a long history of service] designing what became the M1.

The M-1 Garand was adopted by the US Army in 1936. Springfield Armory began tooling up to produce the new rifle. Winchester Repeating Arms was also given an initial "educational order" for 65,000 M-1's so they could begin tooling up to produce the rifle. When World War II began for the United States on December 7th, 1941, there weren't enough Garands to equip even a fraction of the troops.

Consequently the Marines went ashore on Guadalcanal with M1903 Springfield rifles in August of 1942. When US Army infantrymen began arriving around November 1942 Marines began acquiring their M-1 Garands by trading booty, stealing or following Infantrymen of patrol so they could pickup their Garands if they were wounded or killed.

Hatcher describes this and far more in great detail. Far more than I can describe in a small review. It is a fascinating read.

At a macro level it shows how just a relatively small cadre of people can develop a completely new and innovative rifle. Contrast that with today's Pentagon where it takes many Generals to oversee and screwup the development of a new weapon [I spent more than 30 years in the Military-Government-Industrial complex and have first hand experience]. Contrast how the Pentagon develops new weapons with the development of Special Operations Command's 6.8mm SPC conversion for the M-16/AR-15/M-4 semi- and automatic rifles/carbines. Search the internet for "6.8 SPC" and read how top Generals are trying to kill it even though it is getting rave reviews from soldiers in the field.

Since I already own a few books on the garand, there were two that had to be part of my library: The Book of the Garand and Hatcher's Notebook.

The first book describes the events that led to the adaption of the M1 Garand. It was written after the war by the man who did part of the testing of all candidates and helped improving it to the level that won the respect of men like Patton.

Although it was written 60 years ago, it is very easy to read and gives a good insight in the ways a new firearm is selected. It is no wonder that in some case the best is not chosen, or it's a wonder the right rifle is chosen!
If you're looking for detailed decriptions of parts or the tuning tips there are better choices (i.e.
Complete Guide to the M1 Garand and the M1 Carbine, or Kuhnhausen's Shopmanual).

But for any Garand afficionado this is a must have book.

I own virtually any book written about the Garand and this book, by far, is superior to them all. Yes, a used copy now is very expensive, but truly there simply is nothing better.