Editing M1 Garand (section)

===Tanker models===
The ''Tanker'' name was invented after the war as a marketing gimmick for commercial Garands built on welded demilled receivers. There are three 18-inch M1 Garand variants, the M1E5 and T26, which never saw service, and the Pacific Warfare Board rifle, which saw very limited service in the Pacific.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2020/10/26/tanker-garands-the-real-story|title = American Rifleman &#124; Official Journal of the NRA &#124; 'Tanker Garands': The Real Story}}</ref> The M1E5 is equipped with a shorter 18-inch (457&nbsp;mm) barrel and a [[Stock (firearms)|folding buttstock]]. The T26 also uses an 18-inch (457&nbsp;mm) [[Gun barrel|barrel]] but retains the standard buttstock. The PWB rifle uses an 18-inch (457&nbsp;mm) barrel, retains the standard buttstock, and has a foregrip secured by M1903 barrel band.

A weapon with those features was potentially valuable for paratroopers, as it was more powerful than the carbines and submachine guns currently in use. Preliminary testing revealed it had excessive recoil and muzzle blast, but it was recommended that it be developed further. The Infantry Board directed Col. Rene Studler to proceed with the project.

The task was assigned to Springfield Armory, and John Garand began work in January 1944. The resultant experimental arm, designated as the "U.S. Carbine, Cal. 30, M1E5", was fitted with a specially made 18-inch barrel (not a shortened standard M1 rifle barrel) marked "1 SA 2-44" and a pantograph metal stock that folded underneath the rifle. The receiver was marked "U.S. Carbine/Cal. .30 M1E5/Springfield/Armory/1". It was designated as a carbine and not a rifle.

Other than the folding stock, the basic M1 rifle was essentially unchanged with the exception of the short barrel, a correspondingly shortened operating rod (and spring) and the lack of a front handguard. The overall length was 37½ inches and it weighed approximately 8 lbs., 6 ozs.

The M1E5 "[[Garand carbine]]" was tested at Aberdeen Proving Ground in May 1944. It was determined that while accuracy at 300 yards was on par with the standard M1 rifle, recoil, muzzle blast and flash were excessive. It was recommended that a pistol grip be installed, which was done for subsequent testing.

While the M1E5 was more compact than the standard Garand rifle, the short barrel made it an unpleasant gun to fire—and the advantages were not judged to be sufficient to offset the disadvantages. Further development of the M1E5 was suspended as other projects at Springfield, such as the selective-fire T20 series, were deemed to have a higher priority. Only one example of the M1E5 was fabricated for testing, and the gun resides today in the Springfield Armory National Historic Site Museum.

Despite the concept being shelved at Springfield Armory, the idea of a shortened M1 rifle was still viewed as potentially valuable for airborne and jungle combat use. Particularly in the Pacific Theater, there was widespread dissatisfaction with the M1 carbine's range, power and foliage-penetration ("brush-cutting") capability. The Ordnance Department was not responsive to these complaints coming in from the Pacific and maintained that the M1 rifle and M1 carbine each filled a specific niche.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Nonetheless, by late 1944, the Pacific Warfare Board (PWB) decided to move forward with the development of a shortened M1 rifle. Colonel William Alexander, chief of the PWB, directed an Army ordnance unit of the [[Sixth United States Army|6th Army]] in the Philippines to fabricate 150 rifles in this configuration for testing. Since the previous M1E5 project was not widely disseminated, it is entirely possible that the PWB may not have been aware of Springfield Armory's development of a similar rifle, and conceived the idea independently.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Some of the shortened M1 rifles were field-tested in October 1944 on [[Noemfoor Island]], New Guinea, by an ad hoc test committee,{{Clarify|date=October 2021}} which included three platoon leaders of the [[503rd Infantry Regiment (United States)|503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR)]] combat team. While the members of the test committee liked the concept of the short M1 rifle, it was determined that the muzzle blast was excessive and was compared to a flash bulb going off in the darkened jungle. The conclusion of the test report stated that the shortened rifle was "totally unsuitable for a combat weapon".{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Even while the shortened M1 rifles were being evaluated by the 503rd PIR, two of them were sent to the Ordnance Dept. in Washington, D.C., by special courier for evaluation. One of these rifles was then forwarded to Springfield Armory.

The M1s shortened in the Philippines under the auspices of the PWB had been well-used prior to modification, and the conversion exhibited rather crude craftsmanship, including hand-cut splines on the barrel.

Upon receipt of the PWB rifle, Springfield Armory's model shop fabricated a very similar shortened M1 that was designated as the "T26". One of the more noticeable differences was that the shortened PWB rifle had a cut-down front handguard (secured by an M1903 rifle barrel band), while the T26 rifle was not fitted with a front handguard. It had been determined that the full-length stock was superior to the M1E5's folding stock, so the T26 used a standard M1 rifle stock.

The PWB rifle, serial No. 2437139, and Springfield Armory's T26 were sent to Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) on 26 July 1945, for testing. The APG report related that a standard M1 rifle, serial No. 1,032,921, was the "control" rifle to which the shorter rifle was compared during the testing. The results mirrored those of the M1E5's previous testing. The test report found that the modified rifle's muzzle flash, blast, and recoil were all significantly higher than that of the standard rifle. Additionally, it was less reliable, leading to it being declared "totally unsuitable as a combat weapon". Nonetheless, in July 1945, 15,000 short M1 rifles were requested for use by airborne troops. The rifles were supposed to be produced within the next five months, but the procurement was canceled due to the [[Surrender of Japan]] in August 1945.<ref name="auto"/>

Springfield Armory made 637,420 more M1 rifles from 1952 to 1957 and contracts were met with two private firms. Harrington & Richardson made 428,600 from 1953 to 1956 and International Harvester made 337,623 from 1953 to 1957. In total 5,468,772 M1 rifles were made from 1937 to 1957.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-26 |title=Lever-Action Rifle Resurgence & M1 Garand Rifle Facts |url=https://hookandbarrel.com/lever-action-rifle-resurgence-m1-garand-rifle-facts/ |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=Hook & Barrel Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>