Yeah yeah, poor WO Cook. going up against an entrenched and incompetent War Department bureaucracy.
But isn't that always the way Springfield Armory? (the old school original one, the ARSENAL, not the more recent purveyor of XD pistols, 1911s, and M1As.)
I mean, it's easier to list the times the place did a GOOD job and wasn't a slow, bumbling and sclerotic government entity.
Three things they did right:
"Hey, lets make these millions of muzzle-loaders left over from The War and make them breech loaders. The army is only 1/100th the size it used to be, and the switch is easy enough"
"Well, the Krag isn't good enough, so, what now? Hey! Let's STEAL the Mauser design for our new 20th century rifle!"
"Secretary McNamara is coming for a facility tour. Be sure he gets really bad food poisoning in the Cafetorium."
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The more I've read about the Army and small-arms design, the more I've realized that whether it's the Department of the Army, the Defense Department or the War Department, their design and procurement of weapons has been seriously fucked since 1775.
The "improvements" that Springfield made to the Mauser 1898, mostly to try to get around the patents, made things worse. The magazine cut-off was lunacy. The only thing they did improve was shortening the barrel by about half-a-foot.
The Army still had to eventually pay Mauser for patent infringement...
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