Posted on 09/07/2018 12:41:28 PM PDT by Simon Green
It is said that General George S. Patton called the M1 Garand rifle “the greatest battle implement ever devised.” That may very well be true. If it is, then M1 Garand rifle serial number 1,000,000 should be considered “THE greatest battle implement ever devised.”
Why the emphasis? Simple: that gun belonged to the inventor himself – John Garand. (Incidentally, all of us may or may not have been pronouncing his name incorrectly for decades. The article below is from 1943. However, Garand’s son noted a different – more common – pronunciation in 1999. You decide!)
When Garand retired on April 30, 1953, he received one heck of a retirement present. No gold watch here – no, sir! Instead, he received the most important landmark example of his life’s work, of which 5,468,722 were made over a 20-year span.
Made in November 1942, the serial number on what would become Garand’s retirement gift was just the beginning of what made this rifle so special.
The stock is the most remarkable piece of fiddleback walnut wood I’ve ever seen on a Garand.
Housed in a custom-engraved, felt-lined wooden case, the gun was presented with a silver-plated en bloc clip containing gold-plated dummy cartridges.
Garand passed away in 1974. His family began searching for a buyer in 1999. Enter NRA Past President Allan Cors.
After reviewing multiple personal resumes from potential buyers, the Garand family arranged for a sit-down interview with Cors before agreeing to sell the rifle to him in November 1999.
Last fall, I had the rare opportunity to handle the gun myself. Given its incredible history and provenance, it was a privilege to hold such an important piece of American history.
This impressive rifle will be sold at public auction by Rock Island Auction Company during their September 2018 Premiere Firearms Auction, which runs from Friday, September 7 to Sunday, September 9. The estimated price is $225,000 – 375,000. Someone with far deeper pockets than me will take it home, where it will begin a new chapter in its storied history.
The Tiger and the Panther were not inferior in design or construction. But very complicated to manufacture and difficult to maintain in the field. The Sherman and the Soviet T-34s manufactured in the hundreds of thousands were the deciders of victory in the ETO
I know for a fact Patton was not happy with the tanks. Especially gasoline powered ones.
I guess it is a matter of opinion as to which was the best tank of WWII.
I have read that many, maybe most consider one of the later models of the Panther was the best all around tank of the war.
No, and you can add the FW190 and the ME262 as superior weapons as well, albeit air war. Still, this letter was a nice stroking of the 'production front' for a job very well done! As such, this letter may have been too much of fulsome praise, but being written in January of 1945, AFTER the Battle of the Bulge was effectively won, it is, to me, more than just a jingoistic paean for all American weapons. For the time and place it was written, it was the abundance of weapons, M1 and all, that Patton is giving good praise not as a weapon by weapon comparison.
It was the Reising gun they didn’t like much. Many were OK with the 1903, but in the circumstances the M1 was a better choice.
At 85, that picture is one the few things that can still give me a woody...
The best tank in the world doesn’t make any difference if the odds are 10 to one. Yes the Americans or Soviets may lose 5 or 6 tanks against a single Panther. But the inevitable conclusion is a destroyed Panther. The Americans and the Reds could manufacture 10 adequate tanks for every one superior tank the Germans could manufacture. We won, they lost.
M1 Garand,,,
Good to know!
Oh, they liked the 1903 Springfield, but they wanted the M1 Garand.
Any chance of posting the
Winning Bid???
I have a 1943 mosin. Looks like it was put together by moe, Larry and curly. But it shoots straight.
CC
Ping
Gar-end, not Ga-Rand.
One of the first things my Dad taught me about the M1. I still shoot the H&R NM M1 he built for me in the mid 70’s, it wear a new Krieger barrel and a full pressure bedded stock/unitized front end etc.
I had not thought about it before but 50+ years ago I knew a beautiful girl named Garand. She pronounced it Gare-und.
And M-1’s could give good hickeys, also known as M-1 thumbs.
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