“Attention is respectfully invited to Captain Leefe’s suggestion of a metal oil bottle. The magazine rifle is a small machine demanding more intelligent care from the soldier than the Springfield rifle. Certain working parts must be kept lightly oiled. The old idea that the soldier’s piece must not show, at inspection, any signs of oil must give away to the necessity for keeping these parts lubricated.” – Lt. John T. Thompson, US Army Ordnance Corps (1896)

“Materials to clean and oil the small arms were much in demand. Cleaning and preserving (C&P) materials had been in short supply to begin with. Many of the M1 rifles had been issued without oil and thong cases. Often when the men had the cases they simply threw them away to lighten the load they were carrying. By 3 December the shortage of gun oil, small individual containers for oil, brushes, cleaning rods, and other C&P items was serious enough to effect operations. One combat officer, observing that the first thing the men stripped from the Japanese dead or wounded was the neat bakelite oil case they carried, reported that gun oil was ‘very precious and always short.’ Urgent messages characterized the condition of small arms at the front as ‘deplorable’ and ‘terrible.'”- “The Ordnance Department: On Beachhead and Battlefront”

“The M1’s were going to ruin for lack of cleaning in the holes up front-the poor guys did not have anything to take care of them with, and often were not in a position to shoot them often enough to keep the barrels clear of corrosion (grass won’t grow on a busy street-regardless of the corroding primer compound, if a .30-06 barrel gets a bullet through it every six or eight hours it will stay in pretty good shape). As a result of the fouling of gas cylinders and pistons, a large percentage of our semi-automatics were becoming singleshots.” – “Ordnance Went Up Front”