During the Second World War, American soldiers and Marines experienced combat in a variety of challenging environments, against a number of different foes. Despite the worldwide conflict often being defined by the actions of large numbers of aircraft and warships, there continued to be a tactical landscape in which hand-held infantry weapons mattered as much they ever had. On many occasions, it would be American infantrymen firing from hastily dug foxholes, refusing to give in to fierce enemy onslaughts that swayed the course of battles.
It was during this time in history that the rifles, pistols, carbines, and submachine guns used by soldiers and marines earned a special reputation for ruggedness and effectiveness that proved Americans were among the world’s best weapon makers. Some of the best known of these small arms were the legendary M1911 pistol, the incomparable semi-automatic M1 Garand, the unstoppable Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), and the Thompson submachine gun, which also saw service with the British Army during the Second World War. There were also a few failures, such as the Johnson Rifle and the Reising submachine gun.
American hand-held infantry small arms were supported in combat by a number of infantry crew-served weapons, such as machine guns, antitank rocket launchers, mortars, recoilless rifles, and flamethrowers. The best known of these crew-served infantry support weapons were the .30 and .50 caliber machine guns, both water-cooled and air-cooled, designed by famous American inventor John M. Browning. The latter, in its air-cooled version, continues to serve with the American military today.
On the larger end of the spectrum of infantry support weapons employed by American soldiers and Marines during the Second World War, there were some towed weapons. These encompassed both the 37mm and 57mm antitank guns, the latter a British-derived weapon. In addition, there was the short-range 75mm Pack M1A1 and the 105mm M2A1 and M3 howitzers, which offered fire-support in an indirect role to the mortars of the infantry units of both the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. In addition, tanks were a divisional asset of U.S. Marine Corps infantry divisions of the Second World War, but not of U.S. Army infantry divisions until after the Second World War.