M1 and it's ping

[C.W.M.V.]

Firstly, I own a Garand.

Secondly, in WW2 battles firefights could be from quite a distance, to city block to city block, room to room. You guys really think you could here an audible ping over the sound of your platoon shooting, your platoon yelling, and quite possibly the sound of friendly non-small arms fire like artillery, air support, or tank cannons? And of course we cannot forget the enemy who could have been as far as several hundred yards whom are yelling, shooting, and quite possibly be dropping non-small arms fire on you like artillery, air support, or tank cannons. And if it is nighttime, do doubt there will be illumination rounds going off.

You guys really believe that distance between you and the enemy, 100's of men shooting and yelling from both sides of the lines, tanks, artillery, and aircraft won't drown out a ping? Really? Really?

Not to mention that Garands are not sychronized swimmers,, they don't all empty at the same time. The enemy charge when they hear one or two pings? Ah sure, and what about the rest of the platoon toting fully loaded BARs, Garands, Carbines, Thompsons, 1919s and possibly flamethrowers?

Japanese bayonet charges did happen early in the war but that had nothing to do with "pings". That stuff was in common practice with the Japanese army for a long long time. They got mowed down do it quite a bit and quickly Japanese high command ordered stop to it.

Its absolutely plausible. You would be amazed at what you can hear over the cacophony of combat. The most seemingly innocuous things are as plain as day. You cant relate it to going to the range, when your in contact your senses are in such a state of overdrive that you notice seemingly minute detail. Honestly after the first time the normal world seems to be not more than shades of gray, dull.
Whats more is that you learn what to watch for and what to ignore. If there is something that is vital to your survival then you learn to notice it. For me it was hearing QRF coming in to save our bacon! I could, and probably still can hear the sound of track from a very far distance away. Its what was important to me, same with air support. During raids you can hear a mouse fart on the other side of a house, mechanical noises are like bright neon signs.
Didn't you ever notice that during contact you saw, heard and did things that would be impossible during regular day to day life? You sprint faster, react more quickly, and comprehend the world around you like in no other situation.
So ya, I have no doubt that they could hear the ping. Not from a klik away, but your average 100 meter gunfight, or from the next hedgerow over, hell yes.

EDIT: Ill also add that very few actions involve 100's of men and vehicles operating within the same battle space. Most contact happens on a small scale, company or below, and is over very quickly. When you get into large scale fights it breaks itself up, rather neatly actually, into separate battle spaces withing the same sector. You can have one unit that is in contact in one place, yet the same unit will also have elements not in contact.
Even in your larger operations like Kursk, Stalingrad, Berlin, Fallujah etc from the point of view of the rifleman there is only what is happening immediately around him. You don't see whats going on miles away because it cant kill you, that's highers responsibility, but you will hear the sound of a magazine hitting a concrete floor across the street.

EDIT 2: I just feel compelled to ask which actions you've taken part in that you base your statements off of? Very curious to see where you get your insights into battle. Sounds more like a higher-up/planners view than a rifleman's.

[PyroFox79]

Not this crap again.

[locosway]

I just asked my grandpa about this, again. He said most fighting was within 100-200 yards on Okinawa. Some of the fighting that he saw was 25-30 yards, which was not rare. The Marines at Sugar Loaf could hear the enemy talking just on the other side of the rim of the mountain/hill.

He said the Japanese would hit their grenades on their helmets to arm them before they would throw them because the dirt wasn't hard enough. He said at 30 yards you could distinctly hear this noise, and when you did you took cover.

If anyone else has questions I can ask him. I can also video a number of questions if anyone is interested.

A neat story he said was when he was on Okinawa that he fired his M1 so much that it got hot. So hot that the Linseed oil would run out of the rifle and make it really slippery. But after the oil had run out the stock dried up a bit and made it more rough and better gripping.