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We had our own crazies who determined that the M1 Garand had to be be 30-06 and be equipped with 8 round en block clips instead of 10 round magazines. If our general staff had not been so bone headed they would have adopted the .280 British that had half the recoil of the 06 and could have fit 10 in a clip or 12 in a magazine instead of the 8 we were forced to accept. I don't think the enemy getting shot would have much cared about the difference between .284" vs .308" in diameter. I think a lot of recoil shy people would have been better marksman with the lighter bullet
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The Garand had been designed to use the 7mm/.276 Pederson with a ten round enbloc clip.
The decision to redesign the rifle to use the .30-06 was based on the huge stockpiles of that cartridge already available along with the thousands of MGs LMGs and BARs already chambered for it.
While the lighter cartridges have their place, the pentration power of the .30-06 was of great value in the jungles of the pacific and forests of Germany.
The use of thick body armor by the Japanese early on, along with lighter armored vests used by Japanese Air Comandos meant penetration was a very important factor to consider.
The .30-06 AP bullet could defeat most light armor and gun shields at intermediate range, and disable heavy built truck engines.
All in all the .30-06 proved to be the better choice considering the battles fought.
The more recent call for 7.62 designated marksman rifles points up the short comings of intermediate cartridges.
The pre WW1 British .280 was a full power battle cartridge noted for heavy recoil and vicious muzzle blast, along with rapid erosion. No smaller than other MRB cartridges.
The British tested the .276 Pederson autoloading rifle but did not adopt it.
The post WW2 .280 British was the assault rifle cartridge.
Both the latter cartridges are near identical to the 6.8 Remington as far as performance goes.
Most pre WW2 European autoloaders, including the Tokarev 38, were not particularly well suited to combat.
Also Germany built a great many of its 98K rifles using Mauser actions built in occupied countries, they also used tens of thousands of captured rifles and rifles converted to 7.92, they could not even produce enough bolt action rifles in Germany to equip their forces much less first generation autoloading MBRs.