"In combat we had no cleaning gear nor rags for our weapons," Whiteway wrote. "We always kept our weapons at ready and did our best to keep them clean. They never failed us though we were in the snows and freezing rain, swimming winter rivers, until about mid-April when spring arrived, then it was mud. I cannot praise the M-1 and BAR enough. We trusted them."
As for the weapon's use, his squad's method in the deadly street fighting that took place in Europe relied heavily on rifle grenades. "Often two or three snipers would shoot at us and we would go after them," he wrote. "We knew it was a sucker play so I would order about half the men to mount rifle grenades on their M-1s. "We with the BARs and remaining M-1s engaged the snipers, those with the HE [high explosive] grenades faced to our rear to cover us. That's where the main body of snipers would be hiding in ambush—waiting to shoot us in the back."
