Jim, rifle # 2291873 is on display, or was, at Springfield Armory Museum. It is one of two rifles that were field modified in the Philipines and sent to SA by special courier for evaluation. The rifle appeared to have had significant use before modification and the work done to it was very crude, apparently done by hand with files with shorter barrels and operating parts. The other rifle, # 2437139, is unknown, meaning that it's fate is unknown but it was probably destroyed as scrap.
Springfield Armory had made one rifle as an experimental for airborne assualt troops in 1944. That rifle, desgnated M1E5, never left the factory but upon receiving the two field modified rifles someone realized that these newer ones had a resemblance to the previous project and so the armory made one more rifle for comparative testing. That rifle was designated T26.
In testing at Aberdeen all of them were found to emit a muzzle blast estimated to be 50% louder and a muzzle flash estimated to be 80% brighter than the standard rifle. In testing all rifles also suffered mechanical failures due to their shortened parts. The whole idea was dropped.
EXCEPT...there was a Lt. Col. Alexander who appeared one day in 1944 at the army installation at Noemfoor, New Guinea with an M1 rifle with 6" cut off of the barrel. Everyone loved the little gun and thought it might be just the ticket for fighting in the pacific island jungles. A test committee was informally formed of six troops from the assorted units based there.
Unfortunately, the rifle had a flaw which all testers agreed made it unsuitable for regular issue. The muzzle blast was reported by all as "terrific" and in the darkened forest/jungle where they performed the test the muzzle flash was reported as "Like a Flash bulb going off". Just imagine the fun those guys had that day - like kids with cherry bombs and flash-bang fireworks!
Considering the flash bulbs of newspaper cameramen in the 1940's that must have seemed like description enough to prove the rifle completely unsuitable for jungle combat use. They said that even in direct sunlight the flash was obvious. Col. Alexander was apparently quite disapointed as he seems to have thought he'd invented the perfect paratrooper's weapon.
This is all paraphrasing the 2nd edition of Scott Duff's World War II volume. You'll find the coverage of the so-called "Tanker Garand" quite well shot through and through by the documentation he so well compiled.
It's a myth that never dies. I was surprised and not pleasantly surprised to see that Clint McKee's Fulton Armory is now offering a "Tanker Garand" model. I used to think that he was too much a purist to succumb to market requests for such a crappy rifle.
If you want to blast your buddies off of the range, kids, you can do it a lot cheaper by getting yourself an old Remington 360 pump in .30-06.
I used to pack up and leave when I saw this jerk with one of those get out of his car.
