M1903 Springfield - Literary Allusions

Literary Allusions

The Springfield is the rifle that Francis Macomber uses in Ernest Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber". It is also used by the young Rudy Waltz in Kurt Vonnegut's Deadeye Dick. It figures prominently in From Here to Eternity by James Jones as soldiers drill and train with it, and fire it at Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941. Sam Damon, the hero of Anton Myrer's war novel Once an Eagle (1968) used one in the beginning of his military career in World War I and later on in the Pacific theater in World War II as well. The Springfield is prominently featured in the first half of Leon Uris's novel, Battle Cry. His characters are issued M1903s at United States Marine Corps boot camp, train and qualify with them, and carry them until ordered to turn them in to be replaced by the infamous M50 Reising submachine gun. An M1903 fitted with a scope was used by Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper) in the movie Saving Private Ryan, and has appeared in other movies, such as The Sand Pebbles, as well. In the game Sniper Elite V2, Karl Fairburne, the protagonist of the game, was issued with a Springfield M1903A4 till he found a Mosin Nagant and swapped it.