In the course of discovering the above strange and embarrassing thing, I ran across the following in Hatcher's Book of the Garand. On pp. 104-106, Hatcher quotes in its entirety a report he and one Maj. Glenn Wilhelm delivered on Dec. 9, 1931, comparing the characteristics of the Pedersen and Garand .276 prototypes. Under section A, describing the Pedersen rifle, in the subsection headed Basic disadvantages inherent in the mechanism and which do not appear easy to correct, one finds the following:

2. The upward motion of the breach [sic] block in firing is somewhat of a disadvantage. Will possibly interfere with the helmet. Has a tendency to strike the hat of the user. Sometimes makes holes in hat.

I don't know whether Major (as he was at the time of the report) Hatcher did the test firing himself, but I am amused by the mental image of whoever did it completing a set of test shots, then discovering that the Pedersen's toggle mechanism has damaged his hat. (I assume it must have been some kind of brim damage. What kind of hats were these guys wearing to do this? Were they in civvies, with the usual kind of 1930s American man-hats, or in uniform? Were Army officers still wearing the Smokey Bear hats in the '30s? So many unknowns.)

--G.
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