A Most Remarkable M1A1 Paratrooper Carbine

By Will Dabbs, MD, GunBroker Contributor

All old guns have stories. Sometimes those stories are pretty pedestrian. Maybe that battered single-barrel 12-bore helped your granddad fill his cooking pot with tree rats. Or perhaps, as was the case with this combat-vet M1A1 paratrooper carbine, some terrified young man clutched that firearm during the most chaotic period of his life. Many of those stories are lost to time. However, sometimes they aren’t. This one was mesmerizing.

Origins of the M1A1 Paratrooper Carbine

It was December of 1942, and World War II was tearing the planet to pieces. Today, we know the good guys won. In late 1942, however, how it might play out was still anybody’s guess.

The Inland Manufacturing Division of General Motors began producing wood-wrapped steering wheels for cars in Dayton, Ohio, in 1922 out of the former Dayton Wright Airplane Company factory. Twenty years later in the midst of total war, they were churning out M1 carbines as fast as they could get raw materials. There has never been anything like it before or since.

Inland was one of nine major manufacturers that ultimately produced some 6.1 million rifles. At the apogee of production American factories were churning out a breathtaking 65,000 copies every day. Other notable companies that manufactured them included IBM and Rock-Ola.

Inland eventually produced nearly 2.5 million carbines. This included 1,984,189 standard rifles, around 500,000 selective fire M2 versions, 811 M3 night-fighting carbines, and 140,000 M1A1 paratrooper carbine variants.

Paratrooper Particulars

The M1A1 was identical to the standard infantry rifle with the exception of the stock. The paratrooper rifle included a side-folding wire buttstock with a pivoting spring-loaded buttplate and a wooden pistol grip. The stock was not positively retained in either the open or closed positions. A little pressure would cause it to collapse. That was suboptimal, of course, but it did make the gun more compact for parachute operations.

Inland made paratrooper carbines in two major batches. They started the first run of around 71,000 in October of 1942. This series was produced alongside the standard rifles and ran through October of 1943. These guns typically sported high wood stocks, fat pistol grips, L-shaped flip sights and pushbutton safeties. The date of manufacture was stamped into the barrels toward the muzzle.

The second run kicked off in May of 1944. These later guns featured low wood stocks and improvements, such as adjustable rear sights and rotating safeties. Very few carbines built during WWII had the Type 3 barrel bands that included a bayonet lug. We care about stuff like that now. Back then, they were just trying to beat back the Axis.

The date on this rifle is December of 1942, so that’s where the story begins. This particular M1A1 paratrooper carbine rolled off the lines in the second month of production. From there it undoubtedly went to war, but the trail goes cold. I picked it up again some 75 years later.

The Quest for an M1A1 Paratrooper Carbine

I hunted for a paratrooper carbine for months. There were 140,000 M1A1 variants out of a total 6.1 million carbines made. As such, these original carbines are rare. Additionally, building up decent forgeries isn’t terribly difficult. This had the makings of a proper quest. I watched guns come and go on GunBroker, but there was always something about them that wasn’t quite right. And then I found this one.

Everything about this old gun was perfect. The high wood stock was right as was the barrel band, the rear sight, the bolt and the safety. This was the grail. I did a quick checkbook recon and strained to make it mine. When the auction ended, it was my handle at the top. The gun was coming from Texas. As always, I asked if it had a story. 

Filling in the Gaps

Mac and Letha eked out a living in the Texas panhandle in the years immediately following WWII. Their teenaged son, Vince, helped out around the ranch and was tasked with varmint control. Coyotes were bad to get after the livestock. Vince needed a rifle to tend to these opportunistic predators, ideally something lightweight and portable.

One hot Texas afternoon in 1951 there came a knock upon the door. Standing at the door was a ill-kempt man, a vagrant crossing those arid spaces on foot. He explained that he was both hungry and thirsty and asked if the man of the house would be interested in trading a rifle for food money. He reached into his rucksack and retrieved this nicely-worn M1A1 paratrooper carbine.

Mac knew that Vince needed a coyote gun. The .30-caliber carbine round pushed a 110-grain bullet to just shy of 2,000 feet per second and fed from a 15-round magazine, and 30 carbine ammo was easy to come by. This seemed about perfect. The two men struck a deal, and Letha threw in a sandwich and some lemonade for free.

Money changed hands, and the man was gone. They never caught his name, much less his story. However, he was the right age, as 16 million young Americans served during WWII. Back then, the entire country was covered in a thin patina of combat veterans.

Vince used the gun around the ranch for years before spending his professional life as a high school basketball coach. He eventually passed the rifle on to a nephew named Donnie. I later met a respected Texas sheriff named David who was a neighbor of Mac and Letha’s and grew up playing with this very rifle. When the time was right, Donnie and David put the gun on GunBroker. That’s how it came to me.

M1A1: Hard to Find Carbine

All those old carbines were rebuilt at the end of the war with bayonet lugs and upgraded rear sights. Finding one with all of its original components is tough these days. The only way to come into one in that early configuration was to have brought it home from the war.

This little rifle still runs like a sewing machine. The wear is honest, but it is mechanically perfect. Recoil is mild, as expected, and it still shoots plenty straight. I just wish it could talk. 

This vintage paratrooper carbine is a gem in my collection nowadays. I heft the old gun and just imagine low-flying C47’s, German flak, Norman hedgerows and terrified young paratroopers. All old guns tell stories. Some are fairly compelling.