M2 Carbine: Assault Rifle or Submachine Gun?

When my father was trained on this back in WWII he asked "Why are we using carbines? We're artillery." Sergeant replied "When the artillery is overrun you're infantry."

"Sonny, back in my day if we wanted an M2 carbine we had to take an M1 carbine and a wire coat hanger..."

M1 Carbine: I’m a rifle Tommy Gun: I’m an SMG M2 Carbine: confused screaming

Speaking of bullets bouncing off thick jackets, people spend so much time talking ballistics but miss the most obvious conclusion... in the heat of combat soldiers simply missed! With the evidenced muzzle climb on full-auto you can easily imagine the first round hitting the target and the rest sailing over their heads. Embarrassed or in a haze after the fighting what are they more likely to blame it on, themselves or the rifle? I respect veterans but often take what they say with a grain of salt. Memories fade, Mandela effect happens, etc. Like the WWII vet who said he used an M14, I smile and nod because I knew he was wrong but I dont get off proving old men im right.

after some four or five decades, the categories caught up, and now we can call it a pdw

"Remember: short, controlled bursts."

It's kind of amazing that this thing was a couple pounds lighter than a lot of the SMGs of the day.

"Are you an assault rifle or a submachine gun?" "Yes, I'm a PDW"

My dad carried an M2 in 52' with the 7th ID. He never had a complaint about that cartridge. He did mention once that while clearing out bunkers of Chinese/N. Koreans, he set the handguard on fire and he needed to blow it out.

I like how some machine guns look like jelly when filmed firing in extreme slow motion.

My father said very little about his WW2 experience. He did say he carried a carbine. I did a lot of shooting and hunting growing up with my grandfather who was a depression era trick shooter. My father would not go hunting. He said if he walked in the woods carrying a rifle he wouldn’t be thinking about a deer. They had a program years ago to get your service weapon back. I wanted to do it for my father. His only response was you won’t get it. After his death I found out he wasn’t in the army like he told everyone but he was a OSS scout for Merrill’s Marauders. He was still top secret. None of his family knew. He also carried a full auto carbine. One of the few things he talk about was how he liked the carbine. He did not say it was full auto. I found out a lot about my father from Roy Matsumoto son. The guy they made the documentary movie Honor and Sacrifice about. Both were OSS and won MOHs. Roy was left go by the OSS and then joined the Army where he went on to help form the Green Berets. This post sort of made me remember a lot of memories.

"I probably have a little more experience firing a machine gun than the average person." - Gun Jesus

I see "President T. Roosevelt's Fox Shotgun sold for $862,000" in the background... Holy cow. That's enough to get a startup going for a few months in Silicon Valley...

The M1 Carbine was Audie Murphy’s favorite weapon. My father was a Combat Engineer with the 1st Mar Div in the Pacific and in China. He loved it

I was told by a Korean and Vietnam war veteran that they generally only used full auto on the M2 for close combat situations, and would put a hand on top of the stock instead of underneath to keep the barrel from rising when using full auto in those close combat situations.

I have talk to a lot of Korean War vets. And very single one of them loved the M2. Had nothing but good to say about it.

I obtained an M2 from the armorer of an ARVN infantry unit through an intermediary for 35 MPC including two 30 round magazines and a full box of ammo. It had been refurbished and was in very good condition. His unit was being re-equipped with new M16A1. He disabled full auto by modifying the sear but it wasn't really a problem for my purpose. The armorer in my company later obtained a replacement sear from another ARVN unit but then my CO wouldn't let me use it. In the mean time I carried it as a personal weapon. My detachment had a few old, very used M14 and an assortment of pistols including M1911A1, S&W .38 Police Special (4 in. barrel), Walther PPK 9mm,, Beretta 950 .32 ACP, FN .25 ACP, etc. With the '68 Tet Offensive only days away a Special Forces major with whom we worked bought 5 new M16A1 (USD 95 ea.) with his own unit funds to beef up our defenses. We couldn't take any of those M16 out of the compound so the M2 worked for me. I would have preferred a Colt Commando aka CAR-15 but those were still relatively rare in VN. In the days and weeks following Tet virtually every MACV field grade officer we saw was carrying what appeared to be an XM177E1 or E2 and I knew of one armored unit which procured enough XM177E1 for the vehicle crews using unit recreational funds (USD 120 or 125 ea.). Since they were always in the field they hadn't been using their rec funds anyway. Those were the only ones I saw during 8 months In VN.

A friend of mine that was in an armored scout company. He went from Normandy landings to the Hurtegan Forest in Germany. He told me that he replaced his carbine with a M-1 rifle. Unfortunately my friend died 2 years ago at the age of 99.

People: So are you a rifle or a SMG? M2 "CARBINE": ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!

Ian: the m1911 is a hard gun to shoot effectively. Sergeant York: laughs