Featured Carbine NPM 4307621

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Featured Carbine

National
Postal Meter 4307621

In Patton’s
Third Army

On August 14,
1944, 22 year-old Corporal John Henry Uliana went ashore at 
Utah Beach in
Normandy, France as part of the U.S. Army’s 802^nd Field Artillery
Battalion.  

The battalion was assigned to
the 33^rd Field Artillery Group, 
in the XII Corps, Third U.S. Army,
under General George S. Patton.

This is a map
Cpl. Uliana made showing his route with the 802^nd FA BN during
Patton’s Third Army’s race toward Berlin.

Uliana was in
the Communication Platoon.  During the
Ardennes Offensive, also known as the Battle of the Bulge, he worked as a “wire
man” running live telephone line up to the forward spotters and other forward
operating units on the front line. 

After Germany’s
surrender, Uliana remained in Europe as part of the occupying force until his
discharge on December 20, 1945. 

This a picture of John
Henry Uliana (on the right) taken shortly after his discharge.  The other gentleman is assumed to be his
father. 

Following
discharge he returned to his home near Springfield, Massachusetts.   He went to college at Oklahoma State
University, received a bachelor’s degree in Fire Protection Engineering, and
spent his career working as an engineer designing fire protection systems for
factories and inspecting buildings for fire safety. He was married and had
eight children.  He did not serve in the
armed forces again after his WWII service. 

John
Henry Uliana passed away of natural causes in 2001 at the age of 79. In his
will, he left the National Postal Meter M1 carbine to his youngest son.  In 2021, the son could no longer keep the
carbine and I was able to acquire it.

The
following is from a letter of authenticity notarized by the son upon transfer
of the weapon.

For as long as I could remember, my father had
this rifle in his possession. He kept it in the closet in my parent’s bedroom,
along with a double-barrel shotgun and a .22 rifle, and I was forbidden from
touching it or even going into the closet unless my father was present. He
showed it to me numerous times when I was a boy, and he would let me hold it as
long as I did not point it at anyone. He never had any ammunition for it and
would not let me fire it. Sometime in the 1980s he had the stock and wooden parts
re-finished by a professional gunsmith. Other than that, he never had any parts
replaced or repaired. 

Of all of my siblings I had by far the most
interest in military history, and my father would share a few stories with me
about his experiences during WWII. Those stories were not too terribly
exciting, and while he appreciated my interest in the history, he did not like
hearing anyone glamorize war and did not like it at all when my friends and I
would play war games as children.

It wasn’t until much later in his life that he
confided in me about how much the experience affected him. He told me about
running phone lines to the front under fire and the constant terror he felt as
shells exploded nearby. He told me about the extreme cold during that December (1944)
and how he lost most of his hearing in one ear from an exploding shell that
landed nearby. He told me that he never shot or personally killed anyone, but
he had vivid, nightmare-inducing memories of seeing the towns and enemy
installations that were devastated by the artillery barrages of which he was a
part, of seeing dead bodies of not only the German soldiers, but civilians,
children, farm animals, pets… He was haunted by the thought that he was a part
of the machine that caused all of that, and he told me that the only reason he
kept his rifle was because he never used it to kill anyone. He would have
likely left it there if that were the case. He was also haunted by his
first-hand experience with liberations of one of the labor camps associated
with the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp complex near Nordhausen.

He once said of his WWII experience, “I don’t
EVER want to go through something like that again, but I wouldn’t trade the
experience for anything.”

Since I received custody of the carbine it has
sat in either the closet of my home office or in my attached garage. I have not
fired it, and I have not made any repairs or changed any components on it. To
the best of my knowledge this rifle has all original components.

 John
 Henry Uliana managed to acquire the M1 carbine (NPM 4307621) that was 
issued to him in theater and that he carried throughout his tour of 
duty.

The carbine was
accompanied by an original sling, a blued oiler marked IS, and the following:
1 carbine
carry case marked J A SHOE 1943

1 Type II
pocket, magazine marked GEORGE S RUMLEY CO 1943

2 Type IB
magazines marked KSG

1 cleaning
kit marked CASE, CLEANING ROD, M1-C6573A

1 COMPASS, M2
with leather case

2 WAR
DEPARTMENT BASIC FIELD MANUALS, U. S. CARBINE, CALIBER .30, M1, May 20, 1942

NPM 4307621 falls within the third and last serial number
block for National Postal Meter. According to War Baby!, page 446, NPM’s
contract was terminated on April 30, 1944 and the manufacturer made its final
shipment of carbines in that same month. 
The undated IBM barrel offers no clue as to manufacture date, but the
NPM 4307621 receiver was probably serialized in March or April 1944.

It turns out the professional gunsmith
had refinished the stock and handguard by simply applying a clear, glossy coat
of varnish, which was easily removed with acetone.  A few coats of raw linseed oil returned the
stock to its original condition.

The stock is marked “TN”, made by Trimble Nurseryland Furniture of
Rochester, N.Y.

The rear sight base is also marked “TN” for The Todd Co. also of
Rochester, N.Y.

The right side of the rear sight has chisel
stake marks.

Undated IBM barrel has
“hacksaw” cut behind the front sight.

The Type 2 barrel band is unmarked.

Trigger assembly is all
NPM components.  According to War
Baby!, page 451, “HI” hammers were being used on NPM’s starting in
fall of 1943.

The bolt is a round Inland bolt marked OI with a sideways
2.  

Internal components are Inland, as
well.

There are
numerous scenarios where the original NPM bolt could have been replaced by a
round Inland bolt.  It is worth noting
that CC NL #30-3 states 

“Some round
Inland bolts have been reported in NPM carbines above #4,300,000.  These might be original, as NPM did not make
round bolts.”

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Edited by Dan Pinto - Dec 27 2024 at 9:39am

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