Gubs?

[flintknapper]

Thats funny,

Thanks for sharing it.

[honk]

Originally Posted by cruiserdan

It is a bit on the ironic side that one of the gubs used by the US in the Second World War was a, well, a Johnson.........

The designer, Melvin Johnson, may have been aware of the rifle's name connotations. After failing to obtain contracts for his attempts in procurement trials he renamed the rifle "Model of 1941" (M1941) after it's rejection in 1940 by both the army and the USMC.

He was able to obtain a contract for some 70,000 rifles to the Dutch after the renaming by concealing from them the fact that they were to pay for his Johnson, and following the occupation of Dutch colonies by Japan the USMC paratroopers bought some of them from the Dutch. No doubt the marine corp well remembered the original name and were hoping to be able to instill a fervor in troops by purchasing for them the powerful johnson that marines everywhere so sadly lack.

So officially the 'Johnson Rifle' was never used by US forces but the M1941 did have limited and mostly unsuccessful use by the marines. After the war all of the marine corp johnsons were returned to the dutch.

Melvin prevailed later though as it is his patented rotary bolt system that was and is used in all developments of the AR-15 family of rifles.

[e9999]

that thing was neat. MG and all on the same platform.
Very accurate too IIRC. Not very reliable IIRC.

[Fly Rod]

Originally Posted by honk

The designer, Melvin Johnson, may have been aware of the rifle's name connotations. After failing to obtain contracts for his attempts in procurement trials he renamed the rifle "Model of 1941" (M1941) after it's rejection in 1940 by both the army and the USMC.

He was able to obtain a contract for some 70,000 rifles to the Dutch after the renaming by concealing from them the fact that they were to pay for his Johnson, and following the occupation of Dutch colonies by Japan the USMC paratroopers bought some of them from the Dutch. No doubt the marine corp well remembered the original name and were hoping to be able to instill a fervor in troops by purchasing for them the powerful johnson that marines everywhere so sadly lack.

So officially the 'Johnson Rifle' was never used by US forces but the M1941 did have limited and mostly unsuccessful use by the marines. After the war all of the marine corp johnsons were returned to the dutch.

Melvin prevailed later though as it is his patented rotary bolt system that was and is used in all developments of the AR-15 family of rifles.

I got to play with one of those Johnsons last summer. It looked like a pain in the ass to clean.

[dieseldog]

Rub a dub dub, 6-4-6 holdin a gub. Did someone mention a Johnson?