World War Two Gun Question?

Assuming you mean M1 Garand, glasses or no you had to pass the rifle range. M1 shoots a .30/06 round and was effective to 600 yards. The Thompson shoots a .45 ACP round and puts out a tremendous rate of fire (with a 20 or 30 round clip), but like the Colt 1911 isn't much on range.

Whatever weapon you had to qualifiy, you did what the military told you, they don't adapt to you.

Also, btw, there was the M1 Carbine which shoots a smaller .30 calider round, it was designed for non-contact troops in the combat area or as a longer, reach out and touch someone, substitute for an officer's sidearm. The round is smaller, it was for cooks, armor, admin, that type of thing.

I've shot all three and the carbine is probably my choice all around.

SMBR, no doubt the carbine had power problems. But, if you had a choice for all around... I hate to bring it up, but like the M9 (9mm v. .45 ACP) -- there's a reason you carry 15 instead of 7.

Andrew, the M1 is nothing like the Thompson. Completely different weapons.

Warbird Pilot, I have an M1Garand and the carbine. I agree the carbine is fun and easier to shoot. However, I had a boss who was an Army Lieutenant in Sicly who had this story:

Seems he was on a recon with a sergeant when they came over a hill and saw two Italian Soldiers. Everyone moved at once -- the Italians jumped on their bikes and tried to get away. The LT and the Sergeant both drew a bead and shot. Both Italians went down -- except that the one the LT shot -- with a carbine -- got back on his bike and got away. The one shot with the garand stayed down. That was the last day my old boss carried a carbine.

As a soldier that wears glasses, I'm not sure how to answer this.

Even tho I wear glasses, as do many others in the Army, we still have standards as far as shooting our weapons. I would think the use of weapons would depend more on needs of the mission than any shortcomings of the soldier.

The Thompson was used in World War II in the hands of Allied troops as a weapon for scouts, non-commissioned officers, patrol leaders, as well as U.S. paratrooper and Ranger battalions who used it widely because of its high rate of fire and effectiveness in close combat. An M1 is a variation of the Thompson, and there is no correlation between the men's eyesight and the variation of the rifle that they used.