Springfield ArmoryM1A Tanker

Short History

In the fall of 1944 two parallel efforts strived to produce a shortened M1 Garand. Engineers at Springfield Armory designed the M1E5, a stubby version of John Cantius Garand’s eponymous wonder. The M1E5 incorporated a collapsible steel stock philosophically similar to the M1A1 Paratrooper Carbine. Alas, the slow-burning powder used in wartime .30-06 ammunition produced excessive muzzle flash and undue wear on parts, so the project faltered.

Simultaneously Colonel William Alexander of the Pacific Warfare Board, a strategic weapons review entity located in-theater, directed the ordnance division of the 6th Army based in the Philippines to produce 15,000 shortened M1 rifles for use by paratroopers, tankers and soldiers operating in jungle environments. They bodged together 150 relatively crude examples, a pair of which made it back to Springfield Armory for evaluation. These guns re-energized the Springfield Armory guys, and they contrived an updated prototype titled the T26. This weapon sported a traditional wooden stock and 18″ barrel (the original M1 had a 24″ tube).

The T26 suffered from the same challenges as did the M1E5, so it was binned in short order. The prototypes were either damaged in testing, scrapped for parts, or otherwise lost. A single remaining 1943-dated example resides in the Springfield Armory museum and is worth more than my house. However, at least one of the in-theater short-barreled examples was indeed used in action by soldiers of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Tank crewmen did and do require short, compact personal defense weapons, but the moniker “Tanker Garand” was actually a post-war civilian marketing tool. However, the need yet remains for compact, full-power battle rifles for use around vehicles, in built-up areas and indoors. Special Operations units engaged in ongoing kinetic activities overseas are using such weapons as I type these words. Modern technology and advances in ammunition have excised these stubby guns’ wartime shortcomings. Nowadays Springfield Armory has taken the Tanker concept and updated it for today’s shooters.