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The Model of 1941 Johnson Rifle was the only semiautomatic rifle other than the M-1 Garand to be fielded by the United States during World War Two. Unlike the M-1, the Johnson was procured in extremely limited numbers and saw only a modicum of combat use. The Johnson rifle was the brainchild of Melvin M. Johnson, a Marine Corps Lieutenant who was assigned as an observer at Springfield Arsenal during the development work on the Garand and its chief competitor, the Penderson. Johnson was charged with evaluating both weapons and his final report concluded that each rifle had inherent design flaws and neither could be mass-produced.

In 1935, Johnson began work on a semiautomatic rifle design of his own, which he believed would be an improvement over both the Garand and Penderson rifles. He initially started with a retarded blowback mechanism, but soon settled on a recoil-operated mechanism. While widely used in shotguns and low-powered rifle designs, a recoil operated mechanism was a bit of a novelty for a military rifle. Johnson’s original prototype was a strange combination if miscellaneous parts that included the barrel of a M1903 rifle, a hammer from a Browning shotgun and a firing pin fashioned from a knitting needle.

In spite of its crude components, Johnson’s recoil operated rifle showed promise and a more refinanced prototype was built. This rifle was extensively tested and validated Johnson’s basic design. A light machine gun was also developed based on the same recoil operated mechanism.

By late 1937, Johnson was working in conjunction with the Marlin Firearms Company and had further refined the design. Marlin built four rifles to be used for formal governmental testing. Not much is known about these four rifles except that they were recoil operated and used a vertical feed magazine. After further design refinements, Johnson gave an informal demonstration at Fort Benning in June of 1938. This successful demonstration convinced the Army to schedule a comprehensive Ordnance Department test of the design at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in August 1938.

The Aberdeen tests compared the Johnson rifle with the newly adopted Garand. The results were generally favorable to the Johnson design, but several weak areas were pointed out. Johnson immediately began work on the changes that included the substitution of a rotary magazine instead of the vertical feed type; a bolt with eight locking lugs to improve strength and accuracy and a barrel that could be easily removed. The firm of Taft-Pierce Company manufactured seven military-style rifles as well as a number of Johnson rifles in sporting configuration. These finely finished rifles featured a detachable box magazine rather than the rotary type, however, sales were quite low due to the unusual design and the extremely high price.

The Ordnance Department tested the improved Johnson rifle in December of 1939. Over 6,000 rounds were fired through one of the test rifles with only 12 stoppages. This extensive testing revealed that the design had some excellent features and functioned satisfactory. However, some short comings were noted, these included concerns about the strength of the magazine body, the overall length of the receiver and the fact that the rifle would not function reliably with a bayonet attached. The Ordnance Department released its report on the testing on February 23, 1940 and it concluded that the Johnson rifle was not materially superior to the M-1 Garand and that no additional consideration be given to the rifle. The report stated that “…in spite of its alleged mechanical and manufacturing advantages, it did not warrant further consideration as a replacement for the M-1 rifle.”

Such a negative conclusion would have permanently closed the door on Johnson’s goal of having his rifle adopted by the United States. However, as fate would have it, at exactly the same time that the Johnson was being tested, the new M-1 was coming under a great deal of scrutiny and criticism. While the M1 had its share of teething problems during the early production that took some time to be ironed out. These early problems were brought to light when 200 M-1s were supplied to the participants at the 1939 National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. The experienced shooters who fired the Garand quickly became aware of the problems. When the Ordnance Department representatives were questioned about them, they became uncooperative and claimed that the shooters did not know how to properly handle the rifle. Needless to say, this did not go down well with the shooters and, from the a public relations standpoint, the Ordnance Department dropped the pooch. When staff members of the National Rifle Association were refused a request to examine and test some M-1s, it was felt by many that the Army must be hiding something about its new rifle. Articles critical of the M-1 begin to appear in “American Rifleman” and other media sources. At the same time, the “American Rifleman” published several articles that cast the Johnson rifle in a very favorable light.

The Garand-Johnson Controversy reached its peak in early 1940. A Congressional committee threatened to halt funding for continued production of the M-1 unless it could be clearly shown that the weapon was satisfactory for military use. A shoot-off between the Garand and Johnson rifles was held on May 5, 1940, which was attended by a number of high ranking officials, including senators and military officers. This final test revealed that both rifles were satisfactory for military use. The Senate Appropriations Committee decided that there was no real difference between the two rifles and as the Garand was already in production, there was no need to start production of a second service rifle.

A further nail in the Johnson rifle’s coffin was a USMC trail in late 1940 where the Johnson, the Garand and a design by Winchester were tested against a control M1903. The Marines concluded that none of the semiautomatics were sufficiently superior to the ‘03 to warrant adoption. The Johnson placed second behind the Garand.

In spite of his rifle being rejected by the Marines, Johnson redoubled his efforts to interest other nations in his rifle In spite of its rejection by the Army and the Marines, the Johnson did possess some excellent design features:

1) A rotary magazine that could be loaded with the bolt closed and could be easily topped off by either single rounds or by means of the M1903’s stripper clip.

2) The barrel was easily removable, thus making the rifle very attractive for airborne operations.

3) The Johnson demonstrated excellent accuracy and strength due to the bolt’s eight locking lugs.

4) The straight line stock allowed for better control when firing since the recoil force was in a straight line, a feature later adopted by later designs.

5) The Johnson was designed to be manufactured on general production tooling in small to medium machine shops.

By early 1941, Johnson had completed further refinements to his rifle and he named the latest version the Model of 1941 Rifle. He marketed his design to several foreign governments before finally achieving a order of 70,000 rifles by the Netherlands government in late 1941. The Dutch needed these rifles to arm their troops defending the Netherlands East Indies (Java and Sumatra). The only modification that the Dutch requested was that the rear sight be graduated in meters rather than in yards.

Johnson did not possess any manufacturing equipment so he entered into an agreement with the Universal Windings Corporation. This joint venture was based in Cranston Rhode Island and incorporated as the Cranston Arms Company.

The M1941s started coming off the production lines in the summer of 1941 and were shipped to the Dutch as soon as sufficient quantities were on hand. Unfortunately, by the time that the East Indies were overrun in early 1942, only a few thousand rifles had been shipped. Roughly half of the ordered had been shipped from the factory, but not yet delivered. The Dutch government in exile stored those rifles that had been delivered in an overseas location, were they were stored until 1953 and then sold to Winfield Arms.

By this time, the United States had entered World War Two and all branches of the armed services were clamoring for modern military rifles. The USMC had changed its mind about adopting the M-1 Garand, but current production had already been allotted t the Army. The Marine Corps Equipment Board decided to purchase the Johnson rifle for issue to the newly formed First Parachute Battalion. The Para-Marines and their Johnson rifles did see action in the Solomon Islands. Overall, the Marines considered the Johnson to be a delicate weapon and it was withdrawn from service as soon as adequate numbers of M-1s were available. In addition to its use by the Marines, the Johnson was also issued to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). All told only a couple of thousand of the 70,000 Johnson rifles made during the war were used by the U.S. military. Another 1,000 rifles were re-chambered in 7mm and sold to the Chilean Navy and the Israelis made a small number ( some 2,000) of Johnson rifles for their own use.