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First, on "weak" clips. A "weak" clip is not going to allow ammunition to spray all over the place (where to these ideas come from??). A weak clip will allow the rifle to close up automatically without the operator tapping the op rod handle. Weak clips showed up in training, where clips were repeatedly reloaded from boxed ammo, and in target shooting where competitors deliberately weakened clips to gain a second or so advantage by not having to hit the op rod. But in combat, ammo was fresh from sealed cans, packed in clips, in bandoliers; there were no spare clips for loading and no need to re-use clips and it was very rarely done.
Hi, Amsdorf,
No, your ancient history documents date to before WWII, when the rifle was something new and was, as you correctly say, referred to as the Garand rather than the M1. I have seen those documents and also have copies of the American Rifleman from the 1930's in which the rifle is trashed, while the Johnson is praised. Ultimately, the shooters of that time considered that nothing could surpass the M1903 and that any semi-automatic was an inaccurate, unreliable bullet sprayer that could never be successfully used in combat.
But no FM, no TM, no MWO throughout WWII and after called the rifle by any name other than "M1" (or M1C, M1D). And I would venture to say that 99.99% of the soldiers who used it never heard of John Garand. I served 1955 to 1957 and I never heard any instructor, officer, NCO or anyone else call the rifle other than an M1.
Sorry, but the "myth" is that the rifle was called the "Garand" by the soldiers. You have taken a few informal documents from the earliest days and claimed they are absolute proof that the troops always called the M1 rifle by its inventor's name. That is simply not the case.
I have no idea how long you served in the military or in what branch of service, or if you were issued an M1 rifle, but if you called it a Garand, your fellow service members would have wondered what you were talking about.
Jim
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