Early WWII M2 Armorer Conversion in Belgium
Printed From: The Carbine Collector's Club
Category: The Club
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: Carbine Related
URL: http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3188
Printed Date: Apr 23 2024 at 8:34am
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Topic: Early WWII M2 Armorer Conversion in Belgium
Posted By: David Albert
Subject: Early WWII M2 Armorer Conversion in Belgium
Date Posted: Nov 19 2017 at 11:22am
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A recent posting on my M1/M2 Carbine Board on Machinegunboards.com is one that I think should be cross-posted here. I'm pretty sure this will be of interest to Carbine Club members. A European member posted photos of an M1 Carbine that is currently in Belgium that appears to be one of the initial armorer conversions to full auto (later designated M2) during WWII. Larry Ruth provided a couple of crude drawings of this conversion on pages 827 to 829 of War Baby II, which were apparently drawn "by a Sergeant in the advance Armament party Ordnance shop in England in the fall of 1944." I believe the photos on Machinegunboards are of one of the conversions. Your thoughts? Here is the link: http://www.machinegunboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21413" rel="nofollow - http://www.machinegunboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21413 I'm editing my original post, because after I posted the link, I realized that if you are not logged in as a member of machinegunboards.com, you won't be able to see the images. I've added the images below.    David Albert dalbert@sturmgewehr.com ------------- NRA Life Member Past Pres., The American Thompson Association Amer. Society of Arms Collectors OGCA/TCA/Carbine Club/GCA/IAA SAR Writer Author - The Many Firearm Designs of Eugene Reising Eagle Scout |
Replies:
Posted By: New2brass
Date Posted: Nov 19 2017 at 1:51pm
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David, good stuff. The Conway conversion. War Baby 3 has more info and has an actual picture of aux sear of unknown origin. It similar to the first picture you posted. ------------- http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/forum/club-assistance-saginaw-receivers_topic4716.html" rel="nofollow - Club Survey Saginaw Receivers |
Posted By: New2brass
Date Posted: Nov 24 2017 at 2:18pm
If you are saying that the one posted was one of the originals made by then Sgt. Conway, ordnance specialist, I would have to say that the picture you present is not exactly consistent with the account of Lt. Col. Conway. He stated that the trigger housing had to be drilled and tapped. The diagram further shows the spring located on the outside of the auxiliary sear. Those crude drawings were made by Lt. Col Conway. He also makes no mention of a rotary safety. It does look like one of the Winchester experimental safety Lt. Col. Conway wrote to Larry Ruth and included some more information which furthered on the tapped hole. So no, I do not think it to be one of the initial conversions. Later version? Copy? The picture in WB3 (of unknown origin) does not appear to have the spring on the outside as does the one you picture. It is possible that it was later copied and had a design change to spring inside. It is possible it is a WW2 conversion. What I do not have is any of the gun show conversion books that were all to commonplace back in the day. If this was laid out in any of those books I might be a little more skeptical. In all a very interesting find. The safety I find interesting as something similar was on a Winchester tool room or prototype. Though I base this on outward appearances without regard to function. One clue of when the safety was made might be how the flats were machined. ------------- http://www.uscarbinecal30.com/forum/club-assistance-saginaw-receivers_topic4716.html" rel="nofollow - Club Survey Saginaw Receivers |
David Albert wrote: