Today’s Firearm of the Day is provided by our own AFJuvat, thank you Sir.
M1 “T26 Tanker” Garand:
The original idea behind the T26 program was to chop a Garand small enough to fit in a tank. The originals still had the two piece upper handguards made of wood, The rearmost upper handguard was the standard size, while the front upper was absurdly small and had a habit of breaking as the rifle was used. According to the Springfield Armory records, 200 examples were made. They were not especially accurate, and the recoil was said to be a bit rough.
An additional problem was that the standard M2 ball ammo did not function as well in the T26 Gas port pressures were much higher with the shorter barrel and chopped operating rod. The ordinance Department wasn't too keen on the idea of producing another type of 30-06 ammo in the middle of the war/
Given all of the problems, the project was dropped, and the Army stuck with the M1/M2 carbines through the 1970s, and kept the M3 "Grease Gun" aboard tanks until well into the mid 1990s.
There is one confirmed authentic T26 Garand in the Springfield Armory Museum. There is enough documentation and photographs to prove that some of them were actually sent out in the field in both the European and Pacific theaters sometime in 1942 - early 1943.
The fate of many of them is unknown. Some of the receivers were made specifically for the program, so they would have a T-xxxxxx serial number, but others were made from receivers that were in production at the time, and would have a standard 6 - 7 digit serial number less than 1500000.
The fate of the ones in the field is unknown. In all likelihood, most were converted back to the standard M1 Garand configuration after the project was dropped. There have been a few authentic ones spotted on the open market, so at least some of them avoided being converted or destroyed. The last reported 'real' tanker Garand that sold at auction went for well over $30k
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