Roy E. Rayle's Random Shots. It's about Post WW II military small arms development. I'm only into Chapter 2. In Chapter 1 he talks about the earlier T44 being cobbled together from M20 experimental rifles with filler blocks to accomodate the shorter 7.62mm NATO and how John C. Garand was brought in by Mathewson as a consultant and some of the changes he made to simplify things. Check it out (interlibrary loan to make it affordable).