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As was accurately shown in the TV series "Band Of Brothers" many paratroopers jumped with the M1 rifle assembled and secured under the parachute harness.
This is so when they landed they could immediately open fire.
This came out of the Normandy jump when many paratroopers lost their bagged rifles when all their equipment was torn off and lost when panicked pilots failed to reduce speed for the drop.
Second, many Normandy paratroopers came down in the midst of German troops, and a lot of them were killed or captured before they could assemble their weapon.
After Normandy, most paratroopers jumped with whatever weapon they were issued fully assembled and ready to fire, if necessary even before they landed.
In the "Band Of Brothers" you see preparations for the Market-Garden jump when the Normandy men started helping new replacements gear up.
They show the experienced men removing M1 rifles from the drop bags and showing the new men how to secure it in the harness fully assembled.
As a side note, a major reason Ordnance experimented with an M1 "Tanker" carbine was not from requests from the Pacific, most requests came from the European paratrooper commanders like General Gavin.
Gavin and the others hated the M1 Carbine and considered it to be under powered an unreliable.
They wanted a shorter M1 rifle that could be more easily jumped fully assembled and ready to use.
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