I hate to see a good topic die too soon so here's a picture of the 1948 US Olympic team that shot in London. (BTW, photo credit goes to P.C. Roettinger.)

Yep, that's Phil standing back there. Except for the fact that he isn't wearing his Marine Corps soft cover, he didn't change much as he got older.
Sooner or later I will dig up that original email I sent off when I first got the M27. It's just right now is my Super Busy Season, so I can't take much time to go dig it up. It also appears that most of the people I originally sent it out to no longer have it.
But I will dig as soon as I get the chance.
Thanks for the photo!
Cheers!
Cal

kwill1911,

Thanks for posting the photo

MOONDAWG

quote:

Originally posted by Clyde from Carolina:
This has been a great thread.

At least one other Marine carried a personally owned Registered Magnum into combat in the Pacific that I know of...

Walter Walsh was a competitive shooter and FBI agent before the war as well as being a reserve officer in the Marine Corps. His most famous arrest was probably Doc Barker, the son of the notorious "Ma" Barker. Walsh won the Dupont Trophy in 1939 for the best overall aggregate score at the National Matches at Camp Perry, which I believe involved High Power rifle, centerfire pistol, and small bore rifle.

Colonel Walsh was interviewed by Skeeter Skelton, and I have the interview in Skeeter's book "Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whiskey". Walsh said he resigned from the FBI to go into the Marines full time during the war. He took two pistols overseas, a custom Colt M1911 .45 automatic he had been presented for winning a shooting tournament, and his Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum from his FBI days. He said he only had one box of ammo for the .357 so he didn't shoot it much.

On Okinawa Walsh used his shooting skills and the .45 to kill a Japanese sniper at 90 yards, a heckuva shot in anybody's book! He was interviewed for the American Rifleman's 2003 article on the National Match 1903 Springfield. Colonel Walsh was still going strong at that time at the age of 95. He remembered the NM '03 as a fine rifle, and obviously he knew how to shoot one.

I'm posting a link to an article by John Taffin for GUNS magazine where he discusses Colonel Walsh and several other old time shooters and gun "characters." I wonder how many other pre-war .357 Magnums were carried into combat during the war?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_8_49/ai_103381607

Is this the same Walsh in the center of the pic above?

Yes, it is. Karl T. Frederick is right behind him. He was captain of the team, a well-known S&W shooter and later president of the NRA. The notable 1911 gunsmith Bob Chow is on the far right.

Regards,
Kevin

This message has been edited. Last edited by: kwill1911,

All this is just amazing to me. I knew Phil, in fact, I think I knew him well. According to his ex-wife and his daughter, they never KNEW of anyone he talked to as much as he talked to me. As I have stated earlier, I used to actually THINK to myself at night "what am I going to ask Phil about tomorrow?"
Yet all this neat, neat stuff keeps suddenly coming up about his past that I knew nothing about. Phil didn't "toot his own horn" too much, and probably didn't think I'd find a lot of this stuff interesting because I wasn't specifically asking about it. Who knows? Too late to ask now.

Take a lesson here; if you know someone who might have done something neat or interesting that you would be fascinated to know about, go ask them now while they are still alive. It's easier to get the answers that way. (And I had thought I WAS doing pretty good at asking questions when Phil was still alive!)

I still have not dug up my original email I sent off in the excitement of getting the M27. I have dug around a bit, gone through all the backup disks in the store with no result. I keep hoping one of my old friends that I originally sent the email to will send it BACK to me, but as time passes I fear it may no longer exist on current hard-drives.

I've got one more good "Phil story" to add, about his being wounded on Bouganville, which I will type up when I can get some more time. It's still quite hectic at work, with everything going wrong that can go wrong and everything breaking down that can break down -- typical when things are really busy.

Here is a potentially stupid question, but in general opinion, do you all think it would be worth the while to send off for a factory letter on this gun? I mean, does anyone believe it will tell us much we don't already know, or not? I'd be willing to do it -- I mean, what is it, thirty bucks? -- if the general opinion was that it would tell us something more than we already know and would be useful. (As simply something to have to further the provenence of the gun, I don't worry about that too much. I KNOW where I got it and whom I got it from, I don't need to prove it to myself.) I'd like to know what you all have to say on this question.
Thanks!
Cal

I'm far from the authority on S&W collecting, but it would seem to me that when an object is known to be historically significant - and this one is, due to ownership, use, production order, etc. - you can't have too much provenance. Maybe a "Phil Scrapbook" to go with the revolver. A Jinks letter would be a logical addition, while they are still available.

quote:

Originally posted by calmex: ...do you all think it would be worth the while to send off for a factory letter on this gun? Thanks! Cal

Yes, absolutely!!
A letter will give positive, original documentation of this gun and form a basis for the history that follows. Every piece of documentation you gather will only enhance the value of this pistol.

Alright then, here's another potentially dumb question; how do I go about writing and sending off this factory letter? I realize I could probably go "look this up" somewhere, but there are undoubtedly people here who know all this off the tops of their heads.
I asssume I write to Roy Jinks? Address Smith & Wesson? Or is there a particular address? Enclosing a 30.00 dollar bank cheque would be cool? (There are no Postal Money Orders here in Mexico, I don't have a U.S. Bank checking account, etc., etc. . Paying for stuff from down here can be a real hassle. Mexico really is -- still -- it's own little backward World.) I suppose I send the Serial Number and model of the revolver of course but is there anything else I need to include in the letter?
This probably sounds like real stupidity on my part to ask such dumb questions -- especially to serious collectors who probably do this as a matter of course -- but remember I didn't even entertain the notion until last night.
I guess I will go ahead and do this because it seems to be a good idea. Please fill me in on any particulars I should know so I do it right the first time.
Thanks
Cal

Smith & Wesson History Letter

If I were you I'd include as many quality photos in the letter to Mr. Jinks as I could.

Cal, as John suggested, photos of the gun are very helpful but I'd also include a brief narrative of the gun's history. Roy is very interested in these things (and he's in the process of writing a new book on them) so he may very well be able to fill in a lot of blanks or you may be able to do the same for him. You might even want to include some of the pertinent comments and data from this forum thread.

Bob

As I don't have a camera, Roy might have to actually go into this forum to see pictures of the gun. I was never much into photography but now am starting to see -- by reading this forum -- that a good camera might be a plus if for nothing else than to take pictures of my modest little collection and try to make the rest of you lot jealous. I doubt, however, that anything I have -- other than perhaps Phil's gun -- would raise many eyebrows.
I will write Roy in the next few weeks. Kids go back to school here on the 20th so I get my life back more or less at that time. I'll be broker financially, of course, but I'll get some TIME.
Anyway, I would appreciate someone filling me in on WHERE to write, and then I suppose I'll start putting a letter together to send off.
Cheers!
Cal

Cal,
Click on the "Smith & Wessson History Letter" link at the top of John's last post. That will open a form to fill out with the data on the gun and the address to mail it to.

As far as having Roy read this forum, he has said that he rarely visits here so I'm pretty sure that he won't see this post. You might capture and print some of the more informative pages and include them in your mail to him.

It normally takes up to three months for us to get a response from Roy because of his work load so the sooner you get it off, the quicker you will hear back.

Bob

Ah! Excellent! Thanks very much! I'll get on this!
Cheers!
Cal

I brought this over from the thread on Aircrew sidearms from W.W.II, simply because it concerns Phil Maher who I talked about somewhat during this thread and thought the information contained therein should be posted here as well. That's probably considered cheating, but Moondawg thought it was worthwhile reading so that encourages me.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My late friend Col. Phil Maher flew P-51's off of Saipan and Iwo Jima. He was issued a 1911 .45 of Colt manufacture made in 1912 or 1913. We still have the gun, but I don't have it personally and the person who does is out of town so I can't call him up to check the serial number. It is still in excellent shape.
Maher told me once that he stopped carrying the pistol with him after the first few missions. I asked him "Why?" and he replied that he had come to the conclusion that if he didn't make it back in his airplane, then he would have been floating in the ocean.
I remember him saying, "Some guys got rescued, and some guys we never heard from again. I suppose I could take being in the water for a while, but I had nightmares that the only person I would ever shoot with that pistol would be ME because I had lost hope. I stopped carrying the pistol when I flew after that and carried an extra canteen full of water with me instead."
Maher did shoot a Japanese Sapper on Iwo Jima while helping guard the airplanes, but he used an M-97 Trench gun for that shot. As far as I know, he never shot anything with his .45 other than targets and metal plates.