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I agree the MAS 36 was obsolete but it was better than a Lebel.
The Madsen M47 was even worse!
But then again the 98k was the competition so the MAS 36 was perfectly ok for its time.
The infantry battle rifle is far less important than say having a nice shiny Spitfire so I would wager that had USA never had the Garand and only bolt action rifles the outcome would have been no different. The Carcano is another good example of a bland rifle doing a good job simply coz all a rifle has to do is go bang when you pull the trigger and throw lead at the enemy.
Hence why the SMLE was never replaced with another bolt action and the P13 is a history curio.
From what I have read the .276 Garand was pushed and the .30 cal Garand was on the back burner about 1929.
Maybe I am reading it wrong but the .276 Garand was going to be selected in 1932 as the next battle rifle. It wasn't but it was very nearly.
Again from what Ive read the .276 had its backers and it certainly had advantages but there was a massive issue in that you already had huge stocks of 30 cal plus BARs and M1917 and M1919 mgs and so even taking on the .276 would seem loony.
The .276 Garand would have been lighter better balanced less recoil and had 2 more rounds which is a win in my book. So with those advantages it not unreasonable to say the .276 could have worked very well.
The main advantage of the .30 or the 7.7 Japanese over the 6.5mm or .276 is that it will go through trees and other hard objects.
So fighting in a forest or jungle or urban environment the bigger bullet gets your more penetrating power.
BAR is certainly overrated but it was still useable although I wouldn't call it light!
Krag had a few other problems. My Grandfather had a sporterized Krag with .25 cal Niedner Barrel. It was a fine hunting rifle. But a single locking lug and case hardened receivers meant trouble was not far away if you pushed things. My Grandfather didn't. There are reasons that even two lug rifles had 3rd safety lugs back around WW I, poor heat treatment from batch to batch meant they were never sure when a bolt might depart the gun at high speed.The Krag shared a similar fate to the Enfield as that was done in by the 7mm Mauser although the Krag loading system was a pain.
The FG 42 was an interesting concept and an ingenious design but a weapon that light firing full power cartridges was a bit much to control in full auto fire.Talking of firepower the Germans had the G43 which was flawed the FG42 which is my favourite although built in low numbers and of course the Sturmgewehr plus the MG42 so firepower was a 2 way street.
I was going to mention that the 3 main Americam guns were the M1 rifle M1 Carbine amd Thompson so if the Americans were trying to avoid logistics issues with having too many calibres then they made a mess of that!
So what went wrong?
Why has the 7.62 made an appearance? Why are M14 clones back? It's not like warfare is new and the technology is years old. Maybe the P14 will make a comeback as armies realises that a powerful cartridge fired accurately at long distance does have it's advantages.
The modern assault rifle replaced the sub machine gun and the rifle and was supposed to have the advantage of both. Although it also had the disadvantage of both.
Too short range for a battle rifle and too big and unwieldy for a SMG.
Are you going to name them all?There were two different .276 cartridges. A not uncommon event. The number of 7.62mm cartridges is astounding.
Photo from Tony Williams website.
The British pre-WW I .276 is on the extreme left. The American between wars .276 is 3rd from the left. The 6.5mm Arisaka is between them. The 1st cartridge on left in the middle group (9th from left) is the 7.62mm NATO.
The British .276 was certainly no smaller or lighter than the .303. The American .276 was smaller and lighter than the .30-06 (10 would fit in prototype M1s instead of eight .30-06) but then you ran into the not only the large amount of surplus ammo but needing different ammo in the squad or platoon for the rifles and machine guns.
I would note that the French were using obsolescent rifles from about 1895 through 1940. Both the 1907 Berthier and the 1936 MAS being obsolete on the first day of issue.