Damned Inconvenient Running Out of Ammo with an M1

[Stealth]

Been playing some Call of Duty using an M1 Garand. Eight shots and the clip pings out. Time to reload. I had a jr high teacher who fought in Europe who I think talked about the enemy waiting to hear the ping of the clip popping out before charging an American position.

How did an infantryman with an M1 manage this? Did he try to coordinate reloading with squadmates or did he hope that most of the guys around him didn't have to reload at the same time?

[BigDork]

I've heard of stories where GIs would throw empty clips on the ground to fool Germans into thinking they were out of ammo when they weren't. Not sure if it's true or not but probably not a bad idea.

[YankeeDog]

I've also heard the "throw the clip" story before, and actually from the horse's mouth (i.e., directly from a Vet). 10th Mountain Division guys, to be specific.

I'm sure experienced German soldiers did learn to listen for the clip eject "ping" in close combat. At the same time, combat generally creates a lot of noise, so the clip ping would be hard to pick out of the general alarum much of the time. Eyeball to eyeball gunfights were also the exception to the rule; close range duels certainly happened but small arms combat was usually at ranges longer than how close you'd need to be to definitively hear that clip ping. Finally, as you've surmised, soldiers rarely occupied positions completely alone. At the very least the GI would usually have a foxhole buddy with another Garand. If you were a German landser taking fire from a position and heard a clip ping, how sure would you be that there was only one GI with a Garand there? Personally, I'd be reluctant to charge out into the open in such a situation.

Cheers,

YD