December 7, 2016 marks the 75^th anniversary of American’s entry into WWII. On that day the Empire of Japan launched a series of surprise attacks against US military installations throughout the Pacific, including Hawaii, Midway and the Philippines.

In the November 2016 issue of the NRA American Rifleman magazine is an outstanding article by Tom Laemlein about the iconic M1 Garand rifle’s battlefield baptism by fire with US forces fighting in the Philippines in the opening days of the war, many of whom were armed with M1’s built by Winchester Repeating Arms. 

It’s interesting to note that Winchester Repeating Arms was the only private sector manufacturer entrusted by the US Government with producing the M1 Garand during WWII. All other WWII production of the Garand was retained within government-operated arsenals.

At the outbreak of hostilities in late 1941 US servicemen and their Filipino allies were armed with a mixture of small arms, including the then-new M1 Garand, the Model 1903 Springfield, the Model 1917 Enfield (many of which had been produced by Winchester during WWI) and the John M. Browning-designed Model 1917 water-cooled machine gun. Fortunately all these guns were chambered for the then-standard 30-06 Springfield cartridge, simplifying what must have been a logistical nightmare in that far-flung corner of the Pacific.

The initial Japanese air attacks started on December 7, 1941 (which was December 8 on the far side of the International Date Line) and US air forces in the Philippines were decimated while still on the ground. Many US naval assets suffered a similar fate.

The ground fighting on Bataan commenced in earnest around the start of the New Year. US military forces, as part of their long-standing operational plans had withdrawn from Manila to the Bataan Peninsula and to the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay to fight a delaying action against the invaders while awaiting for reinforcements from the US mainland. Unfortunately those reinforcements would never arrive.

While some of the old timers were understandably leery of the new self-loading rifle in combat, thinking that it substituted “volume of fire” for “precise aimed fire,” the Garand quickly proved its worth. In fact the M1 Garand’s rate of fire was so rapid that many enemy solders initially thought they were facing American and Filipino defenders who were each armed with a machine gun.

According to Laemlein, a huge challenge facing M1 Garand users was that much of the available 30-06 ammo was either belted for machine gun use or issued in 5-round stripper clips intended for the ’03 Springfield. All such ammo needed to be laboriously removed from belts and strippers and loaded by hand, one round at a time, into the M1’s 8-round en-bloc spring steel clips that then inserted into the internal magazine cavity.

In his article Laemlein cites several original sources as to the Garand’s effectiveness in combat. “Both the Americans and Scouts carried the new semi-automatic M1 Garand rifle. Its eight-round clip and rapid fire—20 to 30 aimed shots a minute—surprised the first Japanese to come up against it,” wrote John W. Whitman in Bataan: Our Last Ditch. “The sights were designed to give good visibility at night, and it proved to be one of the most reliable and rugged rifles in military history.”

Laemlein also offers three items of interest the first from the Feb. 23, 1942, edition of The Washington Post carried a story titled “Bataan Proves Garand Worth.” A New York Times story on the very same day reported “Garand Rifle Praised by Gen. MacArthur.” In addition, during that same week, Time magazine printed an article titled “The Garand in Action” that described the M1’s early combat performance as validating MacArthur’s decision to retain the .30-’06 Sprg. cartridge for use in the Garand rifle.

As an official follow-up, on Feb. 24, 1942, Maj. Gen. Charles Wesson sent a telegram about the M1 rifle’s combat performance to the workers at the Winchester factory. “Here’s a message from General MacArthur praising the superiority of the Garand rifle in combat, Wesson wrote. “The General says that in the hands of our brave soldiers, the Garand operated with deadly precision even in the dust and dirt of foxhole fighting, and in many cases was in constant action for a week without cleaning or lubrication. This tribute from General MacArthur should be an inspiration for you men and women of Winchester who are now producing this remarkable weapon.”

Sadly, in spite of several months of heroic resistance by US and Filipino troops, in the end surrender was their only option. General Douglas MacArthur, his immediate family and senior staff were evacuated under cover of night by PT boat and then flown to Australia. Once he was safely ashore Down Under, MacArthur went on the radio, vowing to return and liberate the islands.

Half-starved, out-gunned, out-manned but not out-fought, ultimately more than 100,000 US and Filipino soldiers and civilians were taken into enemy custody. In the resulting movement of these POWs to various internment camps unknown thousands died from thirst, starvation, disease, exposure, exhaustion and enemy brutality.