Bertfish
Throw bread on me
I've seen various "tanker" Garands for sale over the years; they were always commercially produced models which basically just had a shorter barrel.
Seeing that awesome 4-digit Garand receiver that Yellowsled picked up inspired me to do a little reading tonight about the Garand and its varients. An excerpt from Wikipedia:
"Two interesting variants that never saw service were the M1E5 and T26 (popularly known as the Tanker Garand). The M1E5 is equipped with a shorter 18-inch (457 mm) barrel and a folding buttstock, while the T26 uses a shorter 18-inch (457 mm) barrel and a standard buttstock. The Tanker name was also used after the war as a marketing gimmick for commercially modified Garands.
The T26 arose from requests by various Army combat commands for a shortened version of the standard M1 rifle for use in jungle or mobile warfare. In July 1945 Col. William Alexander, former staff officer for Gen. Simon Buckner and a new member of the Pacific Warfare Board,[46] requested urgent production of 15,000 carbine-length M1 rifles for use in the Pacific theater.[47][48][49][50] To emphasize the need for rapid action, he requested the Ordnance arm of the U.S. 6th Army in the Philippines to make up 150 18" barreled M1 rifles for service trials, sending another of the rifles by special courier to U.S. Army Ordnance officials at Aberdeen as a demonstration that the M1 could be easily modified to the new configuration.[47][49][51][52] Although the T26 was never approved for production, at least one 18" barreled M1 rifle was used in action in the Philippines by troopers in the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment (503rd PIR).[52]"
My paternal grandfather served at the tail end of WWII (1945-46) as a Navy Seabee in the Phillipines. Him and I were very close right up until his passing and he was always regaling me with stories of his time overseas. His encounter with some of Merrill's Marauders, the time he went wild boar hunting with an M1 carbine (did not recommend that I try that), being shot at by Japanese snipers in a place called Zig Zag Pass where an entire Japanese army had been cornered and obliterated, his run in with an Igorot bowman who carried a bow taller than he was, the African-American unit he visited who had picketed the fence around their encampment with Japanese skulls, seeing the USS John Brown in Manila harbor after he had helped build it in the Sparrow's Point Shipyard, and the pile of literally millions of pieces of Japanese arms which he saw burned. The list goes on and on.
One story he used to tell me was how he had once encountered a group of GIs, one of which was carrying some very unusual weaponry. He was able to examine what he always described as being a "really short Garand rifle". He asked about getting one (he was a small guy and while he liked the firepower of the Garand it was exhausting for him to carry which is why he stuck to his M1 Carbine) and was told they had made them for themselves so no more were available.
I never had a reason to doubt him but it's really cool to confirm that he apparently had an encounter with a very interesting piece of firearms history.
Seeing that awesome 4-digit Garand receiver that Yellowsled picked up inspired me to do a little reading tonight about the Garand and its varients. An excerpt from Wikipedia:
"Two interesting variants that never saw service were the M1E5 and T26 (popularly known as the Tanker Garand). The M1E5 is equipped with a shorter 18-inch (457 mm) barrel and a folding buttstock, while the T26 uses a shorter 18-inch (457 mm) barrel and a standard buttstock. The Tanker name was also used after the war as a marketing gimmick for commercially modified Garands.
The T26 arose from requests by various Army combat commands for a shortened version of the standard M1 rifle for use in jungle or mobile warfare. In July 1945 Col. William Alexander, former staff officer for Gen. Simon Buckner and a new member of the Pacific Warfare Board,[46] requested urgent production of 15,000 carbine-length M1 rifles for use in the Pacific theater.[47][48][49][50] To emphasize the need for rapid action, he requested the Ordnance arm of the U.S. 6th Army in the Philippines to make up 150 18" barreled M1 rifles for service trials, sending another of the rifles by special courier to U.S. Army Ordnance officials at Aberdeen as a demonstration that the M1 could be easily modified to the new configuration.[47][49][51][52] Although the T26 was never approved for production, at least one 18" barreled M1 rifle was used in action in the Philippines by troopers in the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment (503rd PIR).[52]"
My paternal grandfather served at the tail end of WWII (1945-46) as a Navy Seabee in the Phillipines. Him and I were very close right up until his passing and he was always regaling me with stories of his time overseas. His encounter with some of Merrill's Marauders, the time he went wild boar hunting with an M1 carbine (did not recommend that I try that), being shot at by Japanese snipers in a place called Zig Zag Pass where an entire Japanese army had been cornered and obliterated, his run in with an Igorot bowman who carried a bow taller than he was, the African-American unit he visited who had picketed the fence around their encampment with Japanese skulls, seeing the USS John Brown in Manila harbor after he had helped build it in the Sparrow's Point Shipyard, and the pile of literally millions of pieces of Japanese arms which he saw burned. The list goes on and on.
One story he used to tell me was how he had once encountered a group of GIs, one of which was carrying some very unusual weaponry. He was able to examine what he always described as being a "really short Garand rifle". He asked about getting one (he was a small guy and while he liked the firepower of the Garand it was exhausting for him to carry which is why he stuck to his M1 Carbine) and was told they had made them for themselves so no more were available.
I never had a reason to doubt him but it's really cool to confirm that he apparently had an encounter with a very interesting piece of firearms history.
