I started collecting M1 and M1A1 carbines many decades ago and I have also accumulated hundreds of photos of each of these weapons over the years. I’ve posted this chronological photo essay on other forums but thought I’d post it here for those interested in this weapon, and I know we have some members that are. A lot of these photos have dates and captions, and some are historic, but only a fraction of the photos I’ve gathered over the years. I covered WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War with several examples of each, to include M1A1s, M2s and M3s.
WWII:Sep 1941: Inland Division
1942: Inland Division
1943: Lieutenant General Patton in North Africa
24 Apr 1943: US Army troops training with 81mm M1 mortar, Camp Carson, Colorado
11 May 1943: American troops at Massacre Bay, Attu, Aleutian Islands, US Territory of Alaska
Nov 1943: US Army troops looking at a wrecked H8K flying boat, Makin, Gilbert Islands
20 Nov 1943: US Marines taking cover behind a barricade on 'Red Beach 3', Betio, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands (Note fixed bayonets)
Nov 1943: US Marines fighting on Tarawa, Gilbert Islands
Nov 1943: US Marine code talker on Tarawa, Gilbert Islands
Circa 1944: Allied Operation Jedburgh personnel receiving instructions from a briefing officer, London, England, United Kingdom (M1A1 Carbine)
Unknown Date: An US Marine mortar team shelling a Japanese position somewhere in the Pacific (Note the near-vertical angle of the M1 Mortar barrel and the M1 Carbine)
Feb 1944: African-American US Marine Robert Stockman showing US Coast Guardsmen his M1 Carbine aboard an USCG ship
Circa Early Feb 1944: US Marine Corps machine gun crew operating a Browning M1919A4 heavy machine gun, Marshall Islands
15 May 1944: Major General Edward Brooks (behind Eisenhower) demonstrating M1 Carbines to Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, and Omar Bradley, England, United Kingdom
15 May 1944: Major General Edward Brooks (behind Eisenhower) demonstrating M1 Carbines to Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, and Omar Bradley, England, United Kingdom
6 Jun 1944: American troops watched activity ashore on Omaha Beach as their LCVP landing craft approached the shore, Normandy
6 Jun 1944: US Army Rangers resting near Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France, inland from Omaha Beach (Note soldier using finger to push cartridges into magazine of his M1 Carbine)
1 Jul 1944: US Marine with M1 Carbine in Guam, Mariana Islands
3 Jul 1944: US Marines running through streets of Garapan while engaging in street fighting, Saipan, Mariana Islands
5 Jul 1944: Men of 2nd Regiment, 2nd Division, US Marine Corps coming off the front lines after 20 days of combat, Saipan, Mariana Islands
25 Jul 1944: US Army African-American soldiers T/5 Dexter Clayton and M/Sgt. Nelson T. Ewing tying wire to form a fence, France (Note Springfield M1903 rifle and M1 Carbine partially hidden)
1944: US Marines checking supplies of food and ammunition in a cave on Saipan, Mariana Islands
1944: American Paratrooper with M3 knife, M1A1 carbine, and M18 recoilless gun, somewhere in Europe
1944: US Marine giving an interned child candy, Tinian, Mariana Islands
Sep 1944: US Marines receiving mail, Peleliu, Palau Islands
15 Sep 1944: Two US soldiers looking down a row of 'dragon's teeth' concrete tank obstacles on the Westwall, northwestern Germany
4 Nov 1944: US Army anti-tank infantry searching for the position of a German machine gun that had fired on their vehicle, the Netherlands
26 Dec 1944: Troops of US 101st Airborne Division watching C-47 Skytrain aircraft delivering supplies to their unit, Bastogne, Belgium
1944-45: Fallen infantryman, France
1945: Inland Division
1945: M2 Howitzer and its US Marine crew
4 Jan 1945: Men of US 290th Regiment in snowy terrain near Amonines, Belgium
13 Jan 1945: Men of the US 347th Infantry Regiment taking a meal break while en route to La Roche, Belgium
26 Jan 1945: Betty Brewer on the test firing range of 111th M.M. Co., fires the new automatic carbine, a weapon conceived by the officer standing next to Ms. Brewer Lt. Fred Kent, Glen Rock, N.J., and recently fired by Lt Gen Omar Bradley, 12th Army Group Commander.
19 Feb 1945: US Marine Corporal Virgil W. Burgess gave his dog Prince instructions on which foxhole to carry a message to, Iwo Jima
19 Feb 1945: US Marines fighting on Iwo Jima, Japan
20 Feb 1945: US Marines burrowing in the volcanic sand on the beach of Iwo Jima, Japan (Note LST-264 and Mount Suribachi in background)
23 Feb 1945: Men of 28th Regiment, US 5th Marine Division putting up the first flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, at 1020 hours on 23 Feb 1945
23 Feb 1945: US Marines posing with the second flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan
Feb 1945: A carbine-equipped US Marine on Iwo Jima, Feb 1945 (Note M8 grenade launcher attached to the muzzle of the weapon)
1945: Lieutenant R. A. Tilgham studying a map with his Marines, western Iwo Jima, Japan
Mar 1945: M4 Sherman tank fitted with a bulldozer blade supporting US Marine infantry on Iwo Jima
Mar 1945: PFC Karl, a Marine Devil Dog Doberman Pinscher of the 6th War Dog Platoon, at a Japanese cave entrance. If the cave has an enemy, the dog is trained to give an alert signal. Iwo Jima
Mar 1945: US Marine Private Francis Hall and his Doberman war dog, Iwo Jima, Japan
4 May 1945: Overlooking Motoyama Airfield, Iwo Jima, Japan (Note US Marine with M1 Carbine, Type 96 anti-aircraft mount, and the first B-29 to land on Iwo Jima)
16 Mar 1945: This Japanese soldier played dead for almost two days half buried in a shell hole holding a live grenade. Promising no resistance, he was given a cigarette before being removed from the hole, Iwo Jima
Spring 1945: US Civil Affairs Staging Area soldiers with M1 Carbines on a firing range
20 Apr 1945: Funeral service for Ernie Pyle, Okinawa, Japan
May 1945: US Marine Private John Drugan and his war dog, Okinawa, Japan
29 May 1945: Men of US 6th Marines Division resting in Naha, Okinawa, Japan
Circa May-Jun 1945: Hungarian prisoners of war being guarded by a US soldier, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
KOREAN WAR:20 Sep 1950: US Army Lieutenant Robert Strickland, Corporal John Romanowski, and another man fighting in Seoul, Korea
Circa 1951: M2 Sniperscope mounted on M3 Carbine with flash hider. Soldier is CPL Walter A. Dyson, 25th Infantry Division, Korea. The box on the ground is a lead-acid battery pack.
25 Apr 1951: Private First Class Julias Van Den Stock of Company A, 32nd Regimental Combat Team, US 7th Infantry Division with M1 or M2 Carbine with captured Communist Chinese DP light machine gun on Hill 902, near Ip-Tong, Korea
26 Apr 1951: An M1919A6 machine gun crew supports troops withdrawing from Hill 412 south of the Imjin River (Ammo Bearer holding the M2)
Late 1952: Riflemen from the 5th Marines are weighing the possible usefulness of the M3 Sniperscope.
Circa 1953: Soldiers of the Ethiopian Battalion of the US 7th Infantry Division, Korea
Early 1953: 2RAR Sniper “Frenchy” Ray on Hill 159 (M3 Carbine)
Unknown Date: Australian soldier takes aim with his M3 carbine
Unknown Date: M3
VIETNAM WAR:1964:
Late 1964:
Sep 1968: Vietnamese soldiers with M1 Carbines and US Special Forces soldiers with M16 rifles, Vietnam
Early 1970: B Company 1/50 (cut M1 Carbine). This is by far my favorite Vietnam photo and not just because of the carbine.
Early 1970: B Company 1/50, Reenie Feltner with cut down M1 Carbine, early 1970
May 1971: Viet Cong female soldier carrying supplies
Unknown Date: Female volunteer fighters of People's Self Defense Force with M1 Carbines, Kien Dien, a hamlet of Ben Cat district, 50 kilometers north of Saigon, patrol the hamlet’s permeter to discourage Viet Cong infiltration
Unknown Date: Presumably South Vietnamese soldiers caught a North Vietnamese boy and his father. They then fired a shot to trick the boy to thinking they killed his father and to reveal information on guerrilla locations
Unknown Date: Ho Chi Minh with VC Guerilla pointing to M2 selector lever
Unknown Date: Two young boys with M2s
Unknown Date: South Vietnamese soldier with M2
Unknown Date: Cut down carbine
Unknown Date: M1A1 Carbine
Unknown Dates: Viet Cong female soldiers
Captured Chopped M2
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