It was my understanding that a lot of the cold-related problems encountered with the M1 in Korea were the result of post war lubricants that had been improperly specced and manufactured.
Hey guys, I grew up in Alaska, look up Northway AK. In those days we were so cold the Army came down from Fairbanks (Wainwright) to do cold weather testing.
After the Korean war.
I don't trust Army reports, that is the same Army that sent M-16 to Nam.
I have worked in -40 and worse.
You do not need sub standard lubricant to fail, it just has to be cold and they are not designed for it.
Synthetic lubricants were the long term answer, they did not exist back then.
Why do you think the tolerances on the AK-47 were so loose? It allowed them to work as the Russians did indeed know what sub zero did to equipment.
Equipment back then had to be left running full time or heated up so do so.
My take is they ran the M1 dry or found a super thin lube and used that. Short term wear and tear be damned, its better it worked.
What the small arms did was hold off the Chinese end NK so that artillery and air power could kill them.
Been in -40 stuff a lot, that is beyond tough even if prepped for it, let alone combat ops.
While I don't have a bit of sympathy for the Chinese or NK, you can bet they suffered far worse and half their losses would have been weather.
Its amazing they could operate at all. That would have been part of why they did not win, they were worse off than the US.