In general, even such a modern rifle with a rotary magazine in the US Army did not go. But this does not mean that the drum magazine was never used in American weapons again. No, there was another rifle, and a rather unusual one, which had such a magazine, and besides, it was also automatic! And it was created in defiance of the famous "guarantor" by a certain Melvin Maynard Johnson in 1938 and immediately transferred it to the US Army for testing.
Melvin Johnson M1941 rifle.
That is, it is clear that he invented it and made it much earlier, namely in the summer of 1937, and demonstrated it in the summer camp of American naval cadets. Among those who fired from it was Merritt Edson (who later became a major), who played a significant role in her fate.
At the beginning of 1938, Johnson already had three ready-made prototypes that used modified BAR rifle magazines. Johnson called these models "vertical feed" rifles. Their wooden parts were made of beautiful wood and looked pretty impressive. It was he who handed them over to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds for testing.
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The tests gave results, as always, they had something good and something bad. The rifles were tested by army men with reinforced charges, which after 4000 rounds led to their damage. The Landfill Department reported 86 breakdowns and delays, which Johnson tried to dispute, citing damage caused by poor ammunition. But it was good that after these tests he just put his rotary magazine on the rifle. And the reason was that he heard one of the officers complain about the Garand rifle magazine, which could not be recharged by inserting cartridges into it one at a time. “How much better,” he said, “was the old Krag, because it could be recharged at any time by opening the store door and simply filling it up.
What he heard made Melvin Johnson think. It is believed that he sketched a sketch of his rotary shop right there in the bar using a cocktail napkin.
By itself, there is nothing unusual about a rotary magazine. But it turned out to be unusual for Johnson. The fact is that it was also charged from the clip, but it was only inserted not from above, through the open shutter, but from the side, to the right. In this case, the clip itself was installed horizontally, and the cartridges were pressed inward, as usual, with a finger. However, the inlet for the cartridges was closed with a special spring-loaded cover, which was bent inside the rifle mechanism. Such a device made it possible to load cartridges one at a time, pressing them against this spring-loaded cover, which worked like a flap and, closing, did not release the cartridges back! Usually the magazine was filled using standard clips for the M1903 rifle, while inside it was possible to load either five or ten rounds, which was two more rounds than the Garand M1 rifle.
Rifle "Garand" M1. (Army Museum, Stockholm)
Aberdeen tested the "vertical feed" rifle in mid-1938, and again tested it with a faulty magazine, although Johnson wrote that enough spare magazines were shipped with the rifle to have plenty to choose from.
But he did not lose heart, and ordered 14 new rifles for new tests - seven with a removable magazine and seven with a new built-in rotary one. He displayed his rifles to anyone who was willing to watch, mainly to the Marine Corps officers, as most of his acquaintances were Marines. At this time F. C. was the CTO of American Rifleman. Ness, who published the test results of the new rifle in the next issue of his magazine in 1939. As a result, Johnson's rifle was praised for being simpler and more convenient than the John Garand rifle.
Diagram of the drum magazine of the Johnson rifle.
Meanwhile, in September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and voices resounded in the American army that the Garant was difficult, that it had a lot of delays, that the Johnson had more cartridges and could be recharged one at a time, which is convenient. As a result, the rifle was sent back to Aberdeen for testing. This test was the first major test for Johnson's rotary magazine. The rifle was tested for 11 days, 1200 shots were fired from it, and another 5000 different tests for "dust", "sand resistance", drop tests and much more. The rifle had 22 delays. The Ammunition Division completed testing on December 30, 1939, and informed Johnson of the very good results. High manufacturability, firing accuracy, ease of disassembly and reassembly, ease of removal of the barrel, the original large-capacity magazine and its ability to recharge cartridges one at a time, as well as the rifle's ability to withstand dirt, dust and sand were noted. I did not like the weight (more than desired), as well as the disruption of the automation with a standard US bayonet. It was proposed to test the rifle in the infantry and cavalry, but the respective chiefs refused to do so. Johnson then focused on trying to get the Marines to accept his rifle. As a result, an investigation began in the Senate. Some were for the Garand rifle, others for the Johnson rifle. Both of them had supporters and opponents, settling scores with each other, and some senators themselves even participated in demonstration firings held at Fort Belvoor.
Johnson's rifle shop. The slot for clips is clearly visible, and behind it is a spring-loaded cover.
In May 1940, the army fired new fires at Fort Benning, where completely new "guarantors" were demonstrated. Melvin Johnson brought only one of his own rifles, and besides, the shooter from it injured himself on the magazine cover "after 150 shots." Nevertheless, Garand's rival beat him, having achieved 472 against 436. As a result, the hearings ended with the statement that both rifles were equal. The main thing was that the Garant was already in production, and there was no particular reason to change it to a new model, even if it was better in some way. For Johnson's rifle to replace the Garand rifle at such a late stage, it had to be vastly superior in every way. If these two projects were compared at the same stage of development, everything might be different. In the meantime, the only, in fact, the advantage of the Johnson rifle was its high manufacturability. So, the vice president of a company that made brakes, wheels and rims said that they can produce from 200 to 300 Johnson rifles per hour! The president of the car company said they could hit 1,000 rifles a day within six months. Such high volumes made it possible to hope that the Johnson rifle could be adopted as a standard rifle of both the army and the navy. Meanwhile, in August 1941, the Dutch ordered 70,000 of Johnson's M1941 rifles from Johnson. The Dutch government was in exile in England after the Germans captured the Netherlands. But the Dutch still had their very important colonies in the Dutch East Indies, and they wanted to protect them, but they needed modern weapons. But rifles made for the Dutch government never made it to the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese captured her even before the order was shipped from San Francisco.
Melvin Maynard Johnson with his M1941 rifle.
In the same year, the United States entered the war with Japan, and the US Marine Corps bought about 20-30 thousand M1941 rifles from the Dutch representatives in the United States, since the M1 Garand rifles were chronically short of the Marine Corps. Johnson's rifles were also used by some paratrooper scout snipers on Guadalcanal. For example, Harry M. Tully used the M1941 Johnson and was able to kill 42 Japanese soldiers, for which he was awarded the Silver Star. M1941 was also used on Bougainville Island and in a sabotage raid on the nearby Choiseul Island. Captain Robert Dunlap was awarded the Medal of Honor for Action in Iwo Jima (February-March 1945) and claimed to have used Johnson's rifle. It is interesting that his statue was erected in Monmouth, Illinois in 1998, and so on it he is depicted just with Johnson's rifle in his hands. There are photographs of Johnson rifles taken in Guam and other Pacific islands. The Dutch eventually also received many of Johnson's rifles after the Army and Marines finally switched to the Garand, and used them for many years after the war in the Army and Navy. The Chilean government ordered 1000 Johnson rifles chambered for 7x57 mm.
Demonstration of the Johnson rifle in the US Congress Commission
When the CIA-trained Brigade 2506 landed in Cuba's Bay of Pigs in 1961, they were primarily armed with Johnson's semi-automatic rifle. Then about 16,000 rifles were re-purchased from the Dutch government in the late 1950s by the Winfield Arms. Half of the rifles were shipped to Canada and sold so as not to flood the market with them. Standard army rifles at $ 68.50; standard, but with a new barrel starting at $ 129.50; and sporting rifles with a new barrel and telescopic sight for $ 159.50. Although history does not know "would", it makes sense to fantasize a little what would happen if it was "Johnson" who replaced the "guarand" in the American army. What then would American "NATO-era" infantry weapons be? The point is that changing the caliber to 7.62 NATO would be as simple as changing the barrel. The rotary cartridge feeder could easily be replaced with a box magazine. That is, the Americans could get an analogue of the M14 a little earlier than 1957.
The bolt and scope of the Johnson rifle.
Well, now let's take a look at Johnson's self-loading rifle in detail. It uses the principle of using the recoil energy of the barrel with its short stroke. There are four right-handed cuts in the barrel. The barrel bore is locked by clutching the protrusions of the bolt larva with the breech screwed onto the barrel. The drum-type magazine holds 10 rounds. The magazine is loaded through a special window with a lid on the right side of the receiver, under the window for ejection of casings. It has a guide slot for plate clips for 5 rounds from the Springfield M1903 rifle. You can charge the magazine both with the shutter open and closed. The rifle stock is made of wood, in two parts (the stock has a neck and a forend), at the barrel there is a perforated leather. The rifle has a diopter sight, it can be adjusted in range. The rifle is equipped with a special lightweight needle bayonet. The use of a standard bayonet-knife on a movable barrel is impossible, since this could adversely affect the operation of the rifle's automatics.
Diagram of the Johnson rifle.
If we compare the M1 "Garand" with the M1941 rifle, then we can say that the second one has two more cartridges in the magazine and it can be reloaded at any time with cartridges one by one or alternately with clips. The range and accuracy of fire of the M1941 and M1 Garand are about the same, but since the Johnson rifle had a small recoil (according to some sources, only 1/3 of the recoil of the M1 Garand). Its production was also less labor intensive and less costly. The M1941 rifle could be easily disassembled into two parts (barrel and stock with mechanisms), so that it could be packed in two compact bales, so parachutists used it. The disadvantages of the Johnson rifle include a great sensitivity to pollution, and the inability to use a standard bayonet-knife, which seemed to the military a very serious drawback. In addition, Johnson's rifle proved to be less reliable and more susceptible to breakage than the M1 Garand. Nevertheless, the latest appearance of the drum shop on the battlefield has been quite successful. Attached to a semi-automatic rifle, it did its best.
