Shorter rifles, shorter carbines: World War I and World War II

In the decades preceding World War I, the standard battle rifle used by armies around the world had been growing shorter, either by redesign or by the general issue of carbine versions instead of full-length rifles. For example, the Russian Model 1891 rifle with an 800 mm (31.5 inch) barrel was shortened to 730 mm (28.75 in.) in 1930, and to 510 mm (20 in.) in 1938; the German Mauser 98 rifles went from 740 mm (29 in.) in 1898 to 600 mm (23.6 in.) in 1935 as the Karabiner Kurz (K98k or Kar98k), or "short carbine". The barrel lengths in rifles used by the United States did not change between the bolt-action M1903 rifle of World War I and the World War II M1 Garand rifle, but then the 610 mm (24 in.) barrel on the M1903 was short for its day. The US M1 Carbine was more of a traditional carbine in that it was significantly shorter and lighter, with a 457.2 mm (18 in. barrel), than the M1 Garand rifle. The M1 Carbine was not a shorter version of the M1 Garand, but a wholly different design firing a smaller, less-powerful cartridge, as was common in the 1800s.