I spoke with my Dad extensively about this. He joined up ten days after Pearl Harbor. He liked the accuracy of the 1903A3, which is what he started out with in Basic in southern California. I think they were issued Garands at Fort Lewis, Washington. He felt the firepower of the Garand trumped the accuracy advantage of the Springfield.
Since Dad was in WWII, I knew a lot of veterans of that conflict. Several of my Uncles were too. Some of the stuff said in gun magazines doesn't true up with the stuff I heard. The 1911 wasn't well liked at all. It was seen as "junky" and inaccurate. The Thompson was seen as uncontrollable and the Grease Gun was another gun viewed as junk. The BAR seemed very well liked. Carbines were seen as handy, neat little guns that didn't have good stopping power.
Lt. Col. Anthony Herbert, a veteran of Korea and later Vietnam, was a huge fan of the BAR. Herbert went into the army a private and came out a light Colonel. He was THE most decorated veteran of the Korean conflict. He shot all the WWII era weapons and the BAR was his favorite.
