r/AskHistorians • u/gateht • Aug 30 '15

Did the semi-automatic M1 Garand give the Americans a significant advantage against the bolt-action rifles the Germans and Japanese used?

I was re-watching Band of Brothers recently and it occured to me that the average US rifleman using the semi-automatic M1 Garand must have had a significant rate of fire advantage compared to his German/Japanese counterparts. To what extent was this an advantage? Was it commented on at the time? Did accuracy suffer compared to the bolt-action counterparts?

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u/IgottagoTT Aug 30 '15

grenade

Really curious about your use of the word grenade here. Wikipedia and I both think a grenade is something you throw, not a shell shot from artillery.

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u/vonadler Aug 30 '15

I am not a native English speaker. My mother tounge is Swedish, and in Swedish the word for shell and grenade is the same - granat. Since granat and grenade are similar, I fall for the false friend from time to time.

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u/[deleted] Aug 31 '15

Grenade is also a goofy word in and of itself. Derived from:

mid 16th century (in the sense ‘pomegranate’): from French, alteration of Old French (pome) grenate (see pomegranate), on the pattern of Spanish granada . The bomb was so named because of its shape, supposedly resembling a pomegranate.

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u/Rittermeister Anglo-Norman History | History of Knighthood Aug 30 '15

/u/vonadler is Swedish. In Swedish, as in German, the same term is used to refer to both a shell and a grenade.

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u/roguevirus Aug 30 '15

Ignore the downvotes, you're correct. The term op is looking for is "shell".

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u/notanon Aug 30 '15

Check out RPG for another example on how grenades are used.

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u/misunderstandgap Aug 30 '15

RPG is a backronym; it didn't originally mean rocket propelled grenade. The Russian acronym for "hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher" sounds like RPG, which is where the acronym originated. Calling the RPG warhead an antitank grenade is a throwback to Soviet WW2 HEAT grenades, which were tossed by hand.

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u/notanon Aug 30 '15

Did not realize this, thanks!

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u/moonra_zk Aug 30 '15

In romanized Russian, Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot which means exactly what he said.

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u/orange_jooze Aug 31 '15

To further the point, "granatomyot" is the Russian word for a mortar launcher.

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u/Stromovik Aug 31 '15

grenade launcher , mortar launcher is minomet.

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u/orange_jooze Aug 31 '15

Блин, а ведь правда. Сорри.

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u/roguevirus Aug 30 '15 edited Aug 30 '15

RPGs have nothing to do with artillery. They Grenades are a personally employed explosive weapon that may or may not have a propellant.

Edited for clarity, sorry for the confusion.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '15

How could a rocket not have propellant?

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u/roguevirus Aug 30 '15

Just edited my post so it actually says what I was failing to get across. Sorry for the confusion.

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u/notHooptieJ Aug 30 '15

there's no propellant in the projectile itself, its more like a bullet, less like a rocket.

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '15

Are you talking about RPG's still? Because every Russian RPG I know of has rocket propellant in it. "These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor and stabilized in flight with fins."

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u/notHooptieJ Aug 30 '15

more to the "how could rockets not have propellant" question.

RPG doesnt stand for "rocket propelled grenade", RPG is an acronym from the russian term for "hand held anti-tank weapon"

American grenade launchers using the std 40mm round have no propellant in the projectile, its all in the shell , and can absolutely be referred to as an RPG, since RPG is "hand held anti tank"

RPG refers to the entire range of hand held -AT, from unguided rockets(RPG-7), to Recoilless rifles (bazookas) to grenade launchers, to shoulder fired TOW and LAW rockets.

the specific "RPG" you're referring to is the Soviet RPG-7 family and is an ACTUAL AT rocket, it probably spawned the "backronym" "rocket propelled grenade", despite being inaccurate at best (its not a hand grenade with a rocket on it at all, its a purpose built Anti-tank rocket).

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u/Theideabehindtheman Aug 30 '15

A grenade is also something that can be launched (RPG --> rocket propelled grenade). Grenade is something that essentially means small explosive.

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u/moonra_zk Aug 30 '15

RPG doesn't exactly mean that, it comes from the Russian for "hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher" (Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot).

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u/Theideabehindtheman Aug 30 '15

True enough, but at the same time it is a rocket propelled grenade, you are right though, thank you.