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Title:	GUN, MACHINE -  U.S. MACHINE GUN T23E1 .30 SN# 1
Maker/Manufacturer:	SPRINGFIELD ARMORY
Date of Manufacture:	1943
Eminent Figure:
Catalog Number:	SPAR 2699
Measurements:	OL:129.5CM 51" BL: 55.8CM 22"

Object Description:

U.S. MACHINE GUN T23E1 .30 SN# 1
Manufactured by Springfield Armory, Springfield, Ma. - Gas-operated, air-cooled, belt-fed, automatic weapon capable of delivering both a high and low rate of automatic fire as well as semi-automatic fire. 4-groove rifling, right hand twist. Fed by ammunition box capable of holding 100 rounds. Weapon weighs approximately 26.65 lbs. Evolved from T10 series. Improved T23 with addition of a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) type rate reducer enabling weapon to fire at slow rate. Equipped with flash hider, bipod, carrying handle.

Markings:
Receiver: LIGHT MACH. GUN CAL..30 T23E1/S.A. Ordnance bomb NO.1.
Sight mount: A-13157-7.

Notes: Except for the machine guns aficionados, this weapon is virtually unknown. It evolved from the T10 series of weapons. The T10s were made in collaboration with Colt, High-Standard and Auto-Ordnance and it is believed that Bill Ruger worked on this project for awhile. The project laid dormant until Clarence Simpson of the Springfield Armory was ordered to pick it up in 1943. His version included a BAR type rate reducer enabling the weapon to fire at a slower rate.
While the weapon tested well, the project was never seriously considered for adoption since they could not get the weight of the weapon under 26 lbs.

"In July four models of the T23 Light Machine Gun with the latest requested modifications and lightened trigger pull were shipped for field trial at Ft. Benning. Though spare parts for field replacement were sent at the same time, the urgency of the Ordnance Office's wish for prompt testing made it inoperable to dispatch at once basic parts. Unhappily in preliminary firing at Ft. Benning, Georgia unfamiliarity with the functioning of the mechanism resulted in firing the gun with the gas ports wide open with consequent breakage of parts due to excessive recoil. Only when Captain Sturtevant of the Armory Experimental Division arrived on the scene to demonstrate the proper handling of the weapon could the soundness of the model designed be shown. Replacement of the broken parts delayed trial at Fort Benning for several weeks. There then emerged evidence of fundamental differences between wishes of the infantry and instructions from the Technical Staff in Washington to the Armory designers. So the four models were returned from Ft. Benning to the Armory for further changes. During the fall fabrication of spare parts, overhaul of the damaged models, and revision of the drawings continued. An endeavor to develop stamping and brazing production methods for various parts of the gun, a feature greatly desired by the Technical Staff of the Ordnance Department, proved abortive when two of the leading companies of the United States working with stampings and brazings reported the parts of the T23 not adaptable to economical manufacture by these means.
In September work upon the T23 model was further impeded by receipt of instructions to evolve a totally different type of light machine gun, a T37." - Constance Green

"This design evolved into the MAG58 which was later adopted by U.S. Forces as the M240 and later the M240G that will eventually replace the M60." - Jim Ballou

See, Record of Army Ordnance R & D. Volume 2. Book 3. pp.16-18.

References:
NOTES ON MAGTERIEL IN ACCORDANCE WITH O.D.O. NO. 62-44. DESCRIPTION OF GUNS, LIGHT MACHINE CABLIBER .30, T-23E2. Prepared by Springfield Armory, Mass. July, 1944.