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Anti-Tank Guns Comparison
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RARE Marlins that are NOT RIFLES
Last week, I took my grandchildren to a restaurant. My 8-year-olds grandson asked if he could say grace.”
As we bowed our heads he said, “God is good, God is great. Thank you for the food and I would thank you even more if Grandpa gets me ice cream for dessert. And liberty, peace & justice for all. Amen!”
Along with the laughter and nodding of heads from the other customers nearby, I heard a woman at the next table remark, “That’s what’s wrong with this country. Kids today don’t even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why — I never!”
Hearing this, my grandson burst into tears & asked me, “Did I do it wrong Grandpa? Is God mad at me?”
After I assured him that he had done a terrific job & that God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table.
He winked at my grandson & said, “I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer.”
“Really?” my grandson asked.
“Cross my heart,” the man replied. Then, in a theatrical whisper, he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), “Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is sometimes good for the soul.”
Naturally, I bought my grandchildren ice cream at the end of the meal. My grandson stared at his ice cream for a moment, & then he did something I will remember for the rest of my life.
He picked up his sundae & without a word, walked over & placed it in front of the woman.
With a big smile he looked her in the eye & told her, “Here ma’am, this is for you, you grouchy old Bitch. You must be a Democrat, shove it up your Ass & cool off!”
Kind of brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it.
He will make a fine Sailor one day
In early March 1878, retailers were advertising
the Colt Frontier Six Shooter. Photo by Alan Garbers.
The name Colt Frontier Six Shooter conjures up visions of salty cowboys driving unruly Texas Longhorns north to the railhead in some wide-open town in Kansas, or a tall, lean, weatherworn marshal standing off a gang of desperados. But the moniker confuses the uninitiated. The Colt Frontier Six Shooter looks identical to the Colt Single Action Army, also known as the Peacemaker, so what is the difference?
Smith & Wesson, as well as other manufacturers, followed Colt in advertising their .44 WCF revolvers as the “Frontier”. Photo by Alan Garbers.
When first introduced, the Peacemaker was marketed as the New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol, designed to be the new sidearm of the US Cavalry. The previous model was the Colt Model of 1860, which was a slow-loading percussion revolver.
So, it makes sense that Colt Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing wanted to highlight modern improvements. It truly was the new model army revolver designed for the new, powerful .45 Colt self-contained cartridge.
But, in marketing terms, “New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol” is not a name that would drive buyers to their local Colt dealer. Colt’s biggest distributor, B. Kittredge & Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, started marketing the big-bore Colt as the Peacemaker, perhaps in honor of Samual Colt.
Peace Maker was the nickname given to Samual Colt by his friend, Texan Samual Walker, in response to the production of the revolutionary Colt Walker. According to author John Parsons, the name “Peacemaker” originally only applied to Colts chambered in .45 Colt, but many call any Colt Single Action Army revolver the “Peacemaker” regardless of caliber or chambering.
Lawman Pat Garret carried a Colt Frontier Six Shooter during his pursuit of Billy the Kid. Lawman preferred the .44 WCF because they could have a rifle and revolver in the same cartridge. Photo by Alan Garbers.
So, where does the Colt Frontier Six Shooter fit in? The same year that Colt introduced the Peacemaker, Winchester introduced their legendary ’73 lever-action rifle. The first chambering for the new iron-framed rifle was the Winchester .44 Center Fire Cartridge, later known as the .44-40 or .44 WCF.
The cartridge fired a 200-grain bullet being pushed by 40-grains of black powder. Compared to other cartridges of the day, the .44-40 punched above its weight class and was an instant hit. Some claim the .44-40 took more game and killed more men than any other cartridge prior to WWI.
The .44 WCF was developed as a rifle cartridge but was short enough to be used in a revolver. From left to right: .45 Colt, .44 WCF, .44 Magnum. Photo by Alan Garbers.
While the .44-40 was developed as a rifle cartridge, it easily fit into the Colt SAA cylinder, so in 1878, Colt wisely offered their prized revolver in the Winchester cartridge.
Some claim the board members at Colt were loath to stamp anything crediting Winchester on the barrel of a Colt, so, in a trend repeated over the next 50 years, they ignored the original name and marked the revolver barrel in a manner that would not credit their competitor.
The Colt Frontier Six Shooter was born.
The Colt Frontier Six Shooter roll mark lasted from 1890 to 1923. After 1923, the 44-40 stamping was added. Photo by Alan Garbers.
The Colt Frontier Six Shooter model is identical to every other Colt Single Action Army except for the chambering. Photo by Alan Garbers.
Starting with the early 41000 serial number range, the barrel marking was applied by acid etching. Unfortunately, the acid etching was only 8-10 thousandths of an inch deep, and the marking was easily worn off or covered during refinishing. An original acid-etched Colt Frontier Six Shooter is now highly sought after by collectors. In December 1889, Colt went to a roll-stamp, which was faster to produce and much more durable.
The Colt Frontier Six Shooter is found mainly in 7 ½” barrel models, which were often cut down later.
Photo by Alan Garbers.
Complete acid etched barrels are rare and desirable. From the collection of Ian Collins Civco, DVM.
Mechanically and physically, there is no difference between the Frontier Six Shooter or any other Colt Single Action Army. The name simply applies to the cartridge it was chambered for.
The Colt Frontier Six Shooter can also be found on the Colt Bisley and, in rare cases, the Colt Model of 1878. Over the years, limited runs of acid-etched and roll-stamped models have been issued, and collectors have gobbled them up. After all, what is more Wild West than a Colt Frontier Six-Shooter?
I used to love working at the VA hospital. Just like everything Uncle Sam does, the Veterans Administration is bloated, inefficient, and frustrating. However, back when I worked there as a physician we still had a proper crop of World War II veterans who needed inpatient care. That was Candyland for a history nerd like me.
On the rare evening when we weren’t neck deep in chaos, all it took was an open door with the light on. I’d just knock, introduce myself, pull up a chair, and ask for a story. I met some of the most fascinating guys that way.
The Ride
Powell was a tanker. He landed on Omaha Beach right after D-Day and crewed his Sherman all the way through to the bloody end. We’ve all see the movie Fury. I’m not convinced but that the real thing wasn’t markedly worse than that.
Like a lot of those great old guys, Powell tended to gloss over the really bad stuff in favor of anecdotes that were humorous or silly. There was a very good reason for that. I have had the privilege of spending some time in and around a vintage Sherman tank myself. I left the experience thinking that this would have been a truly horrible place to die.
Driving an M4 Sherman is a bit like piloting a condominium. That big massive engine is amazingly powerful, and the tank itself is big. Despite being a medium tank that was markedly smaller than the Panthers and Tigers it faced in Europe, the Sherman yet remains fairly awe-inspiring up close.
Details
The M4 Sherman was introduced in 1942. The last upgraded versions were finally retired from service with the Paraguayan Army in 2018. That’s because the Sherman was such a rugged, reliable design.
The enemy tanks it faced in Europe were most all bigger, tougher, and more heavily armed. However, what made the Sherman such a war-winning weapon was its speed and reliability. The Sherman was made by the same good folks who built American automobiles and railroad rolling stock before the war. We really knew how to make stuff back then.
The Early Shermans
The Sherman that Powell rode across Omaha Beach was an early version with a crew of five and a stubby 75mm main gun. These tanks were never really designed to go toe-to-toe with the big German cats. Uncle Sam had dedicated tank destroyers for that. These Shermans were infantry support tanks. In this role, that short-barreled 75mm gun was about perfect.
The Sherman had a driver, an assistant driver who was also responsible for the Browning M1919 .30-caliber bow gun, a gunner, a loader, and a tank commander. Powell was a tank commander for most of his time in combat.
The inside of a Sherman is almost unimaginably cramped, particularly in the turret. The tank commander rides with his knees wrapped around the gunner. In this configuration, most commanders made adjustments to the lay of the main gun simply by bumping the gunner on one side or the other with his knees. Such intimate circumstances also made for some exceptionally close friendships.
These guys ate, slept, drove, and fought together. Imagine taking five college frat brothers and shoving them into the cockpit of a Toyota Corolla for 16 hours a day for weeks on end. Now imagine that, in addition to these five guys, you have enough weapons and ammunition to level a small village. Also, these five guys are all relying on each other to survive.
Powell was in combat for around 10 months. During that time, he had five Sherman tanks shot out from under him. Most of those tanks fell to panzerfausts. The panzerfaust was a simple, disposable German anti-tank weapon that consisted of little more than a steel tube and a rocket-powered shaped charge warhead. Powell clearly hated panzerfausts. Of his original five-man crew, he was the only one to survive the war.
Don’t Drink and Drive
Powell was a committed Christian and a teetotaler who was raised to avoid alcohol. However, one day while tearing about war-torn Belgium just looking for trouble, he and his mates came across an abandoned warehouse. Venturing inside, they discovered stacks of vintage cognac in its original cases, all free for the taking.
Powell didn’t drink, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one.
Soldiers of that era were veritably fueled by alcohol. If he could liberate some of this stuff, he could trade it for Lord-only-knows what. Along the way, he thought he might actually try a sip or two himself. This was clearly his lucky day.
Leaving one man outside to pull security, he and the rest of his crew started transferring the liberated cognac out to the tank. As I said, there’s no extraneous space inside a Sherman, so they just stacked this stuff in an orderly fashion on the engine deck. It was in this configuration that Powell looked up and saw a German Kübelwagen puttering up the road toward them.
The Kübelwagen was the German equivalent of our jeep. This one carried three German soldiers and mounted a belt-fed machinegun in the back. Realizing what was happening, Powell and his crew all scrambled for their weapons.
The standard small arms loadout for an American Sherman crew in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) early on was a single .45-caliber submachine gun. Each crewmember was also issued an M1911A1 .45 pistol. Early in the war, that SMG was a Thompson.
Later on, each crew got five M3 Grease Guns. However, all that went out the window as soon as the shooting started. Powell’s crew had availed themselves of assorted extra weapons. One man grabbed the big fifty mounted atop the turret. By now, the Kübelwagen was getting close.
The Germans were just as surprised as had been the American tankers. The little vehicle slowed down as the German soldiers likewise raised their weapons. It then just puttered by — five Americans and three Germans all pointing guns at each other with their fingers on the triggers. Without saying a word, the kubelwagen reached the end of the street, turned, and departed never to be seen again. Nobody fired a shot.
Realizing their good fortune, Powell quickly strapped down their newly liberated booze, fired up the tank, and roared off. Later that afternoon, he was guiding his tank down a remote Belgian road. Out of the clear blue sky, a single German mortar round struck the tank solidly on the engine deck. The tank was undamaged, but the liberated cognac was utterly obliterated. It is literally impossible to intentionally hit a moving vehicle with a mortar. This was clearly all fate. Powell laughed and said he took that as a sign that he shouldn’t start drinking alcohol.
Ruminations
Back before I started doing so much writing, I filled my free time in my workshop. My favorite pastime was building wooden models with my kids. We formed them all out of white pine lumber and crafted the accessories from commonly-found items.
Nails and toothpicks made gun barrels, cardboard formed fenders and applique armor, and sewing elastic doubled as tank tracks. The end result was not nearly so realistic or detailed as the store-bought plastic sort. However, building these things was both great fun and an excuse for quality time with my children. For really special friends, they also made superb gifts.
Powell and his lovely wife Patricia had my family over for Easter lunch some while after he got out of the hospital. It was a priceless opportunity for fun, food, and fellowship. While there, I presented my friend Powell with a scale model of the M4 Sherman tank he commanded in Europe during World War II, replete with a little case of cognac on the engine deck. Powell wept when he got it.