Auto-Ordnance 1911 Tanker 45 ACP OD Green — Superb Armored Tribute

Description

The Auto-Ordnance 1911 Tanker takes the service pistol that armored crews carried and finishes it the way their vehicles were painted. OD green across the frame and slide, the white Allied recognition star on the slide flat, and checkered wood grips with US medallions inlaid. It is a GI-pattern 1911 in 45 ACP with a 5 inch barrel and a 7-round magazine.

The Star and What It Meant

The white star on the slide is not decoration for its own sake. Allied vehicles in the European and Pacific theatres carried it as a recognition marking so friendly aircraft and ground units could tell them apart at distance, and it appeared on everything from Shermans to jeeps to landing craft. Putting it on the Auto-Ordnance 1911 Tanker connects the pistol to the vehicles rather than to the infantry, which is the whole idea behind the edition.

Tank crews were issued the M1911A1 for the same reason aircrew were: in the confined space of a turret, a full-size rifle is useless and a pistol is what you can actually reach. The 1911 went into armored vehicles from the beginning of the war to the end of the pistol’s service life in 1985.

Specifications

• Model: Auto-Ordnance 1911 Tanker Edition
• Caliber: 45 ACP
• Barrel: 5 in
• Capacity: 7+1
• Pattern: GI 1911
• Finish: OD green with white Allied recognition star on the slide
• Grips: checkered wood with US medallions
• Sights: fixed
• Safeties: thumb safety and grip safety

A note on the finish. OD green here is a coating rather than a paint, so it wears the way a working finish should rather than chipping, and the star is applied rather than engraved. On a pistol that is likely to be handled and shown rather than carried daily, that is the right balance — it will hold its appearance for decades with nothing more than an occasional wipe down.

Why it is worth considering

• OD green finish with the white Allied recognition star, as carried on wartime vehicles
• Checkered wood grips with US medallions
• GI 1911 pattern, correct for the period reference
• Standard 45 ACP, 5 inch barrel, 7+1
• A tribute to armored crews rather than the more common infantry commemoratives
• Standard 1911 magazines and parts throughout

Who it suits

The Auto-Ordnance 1911 Tanker suits the armor veteran, the collector of Second World War tributes, and anyone who already owns a Sherman model on a shelf somewhere. It is one of the few commemoratives aimed at tank crews rather than infantry or aircrew, which makes it an unusually well-targeted gift. Mechanically it is an ordinary GI 1911 and will shoot perfectly well if you want it to.

Ammunition, Magazines and Transfer

The Auto-Ordnance 1911 Tanker runs standard 45 ACP. The GI pattern was designed around 230 grain round nose ball and that is what it feeds most reliably, since GI feed ramps and barrel throats are cut for round nose rather than hollow point profiles. If you intend to use it for anything beyond range work, run a box of your chosen load through it first.

Magazines are standard single-stack 1911 pattern; seven-round magazines are correct for the configuration. Manufacturer information is published by Auto-Ordnance. Auto-Ordnance produce several service tributes alongside this one — compare with the Red Tails Tuskegee Airmen edition, the Memphis Belle and the Army 250th Anniversary, or browse our full Auto-Ordnance range and the handgun catalog.

All firearm orders ship to a licensed FFL dealer for transfer, and MAG5 Firearms will coordinate the paperwork with the dealer of your choice.

A note for anyone building a themed collection. Between the Tanker, the Red Tails and the Memphis Belle, Auto-Ordnance have covered armor, fighters and bombers on the same 1911 platform — three branches of the same war on three variations of the same pistol. They display together rather well, and because the underlying gun is identical in each case, anything you learn about maintaining one applies to all of them.