US Army Considers Adopting an Interim Battle Rifle in 7.62NATO: eventually adopt 6.5

[stanc]

My thoughts were that had the M1 Garand been designed more like the M14 with less wood and a box magazine (used the BAR mag) it would have been the right rifle for WW2.

I agree it would've been better, but that idea would require Garand design his gas system much differently than he actually did. If he had known how to do that, he would've done so originally.

The Assault rifle that the Germans designed came very late in the war.

Not exactly. The first iteration -- the MKb42 -- entered service in 1942, only midway through the war in Europe.

In any case, that has no bearing on my idea that the M1 Garand could easily have been designed as a short, lightweight assault rifle instead of a long, heavy battle rifle.