World War II Database

Country of Origin	United States
Type	Rifle
Caliber	7.800 mm
Capacity	10 rounds
Length	1,165.000 mm
Barrel Length	560.000 mm
Weight	4.310 kg
Muzzle Velocity	866 m/s

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJohnson Model 1941 semi-automatic rifles were designed in 1939 by Melvin Johnson, Jr., an attorney and an officer in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, in response to a US Army call for a new standard infantry rifle. These weapons used 10-round rotary magazines that was rather different from its main competitor, the M1 Garand rifle. When the US Army selected the M1 Garand design over that of Johnson's, Johnson secured a contract with the Netherlands for its forces in the Dutch East Indies, although only a small number would be shipped before the Japanese invasion. Some of the weapons not yet shipped to the South Pacific found a new buyer in the US Marine Corps, which was seeking to rapidly equipping its new parachute infantry battalions; the USMC would use them through the end of WW2. In Apr 1944, the US War Department arranged a contract with the Free French for 10,500 Johnson M1941 rifles.

After the war, the Johnson Automatics, Incorporated performed poorly and went out of business in 1949. A total of about 70,000 examples of Johnson M1941 rifles were built between 1941 and 1949.

A number of Johnson M1941 rifles found their way to Cuba. They were used in combat on both sides of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Source: Wikipedia

ww2dbase

Last Major Revision: Jun 2017

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