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New, 4th Edition, revised and expanded with new serial number information, parts descriptions, and photos. The M1 Garand was the battle rifle issued to American forces during World War II and the Korean War. It was the first semiautomatic rifle design to be used by combat forces in any army of the world. Developed in the 1930s, it was standardized in 1936 and saw its first combat in the Philippines in December 1941. Few other rifles have developed such a distinguished record as both a battle rifle and a match target rifle in the history of this or any other nation. General George Patton called the M1 Garand "the greatest battle implement ever devised." The M1 Garand with its capability of firing one round every time the trigger was pulled gave the American soldier a distinct firepower advantage over enemy soldiers armed with bolt action rifles that had to be cocked before each shot. During World War II, nearly four million M1 Garands were built at the Springfield National Armory and Winchester Repeating Firearms factories. They were issued to American troops in training camps and combat zones in every theater of the war. And hundreds of thousands were issued to French, Belgian, Greek, Italian and Philippine allies as well. During the Cold War years until the early 1960s, he M1 Garand was the mainstay of our small arms support programs to allied and friendly nations. In the last days of World War II, special variations of the M1 Garand, designated the M1C were developed and produced as sniper rifles. More were built during and after the! Korean War as the M1D. Also, during the Korean War, the M1 Garand was put back into production at Springfield, and in the factories of two private concerns, bringing the total production to almost 6,000,000. Hundreds of thousands of M1 Garands were issued to soldiers of the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam. Thousands of M1 Garands were manufactured in the 1950s as Match Target rifles and these are also eagerly sought by collecto