This 1911A1 was carried in WWII by my Dad who served from 1941 to 1945 in Coast Artillery and later in the European Theatre in the Infantry.

Bill

Would be great to have Dads service pistol.

Now that is a special gun

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Paul
S&WCA #2726

That one is in great shape. Looks like it is retaining most of its original finish.thanks for posting .

Your father's .45...what a treasure. It's one of those guns that the monetary value bears no relation to the emotional value, the personal investment. I would love to hear of its travels. Have you fired it? I would not be able to resist firing it. And I'd undoubtedly spend some time sitting around just holding it and thinking of my dad. I'll speculate that of all the guns in your collection, all the guns you photograph, that one gets special attention. Thanks for showing us that pistol.

Now that my friends is the precise meaning of a family keepsake. Priceless, and thanks for sharing it with us. Great gun with the best of historical significance..

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Bill
Dis B. Leaf

Thanks for sharing! That is an awesome heirloom & to have his decorated jacket too! I had an uncle who passed away 10 years ago & he was at Pearl Harbour on today's date in '41. It's sad that we are loosing them--but we still have the memories.

That's not an A1. 1911. An A1 has notches back of the trigger, on the side of the frame.



It's been rebuilt - it has the A1's arched mainspring housing and short trigger, but that's no biggie. Most military guns were rebuilt a time or six.

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I always take precautions

Watchdog...I have fired the .45 many times over the years. My Dad, my brother and I used to take it out in the early 60s.

Bill

I see the Master Sergeant had a WWII victory ribbon, a Good Conduct ribbon, American Defense service metal, American Campaign metal, European African middle east campaign metal. I see he qualified with a Machine Gun but I can't read the top one. I also see he was with the 28th Infantry division. During the Battle of the Bulge they were mauled by the 5th Panzer Army. They fought with great sacrifice and slowed down those Nazis SOBs long enough to insure their offensive would fail. Then they drove the Germans back into Germany across the Siegfried line. They were their at the surrender.

That uniform is more valuable than the Colt in my humble opinion. I gave my father's metals to his grandson. I asked my father once what souvenir he brought back from the war. He turned around and point at his buttocks.

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Have Gun Will Carry

Alpo...You are correct. The .45 was manufactured around 1918 and rebuilt sometime before WWII. It is stamped M1911 A1 U. S. ARMY on the right side of the slide.

Bill

That is a wonderful legacy.

It also has the 1911's short grip safety tang. I wonder if it has the narrow front sight and rear sight notch of the 1911?
What a history, though. Talk about "history you can hold in your hand."

That's what I would call a war-time expedient. It has a 1911 frame, hammer and grip safety, 1911A1 slide, mainspring housing, trigger and grips. There should be some arsenal rework marks on it somewhere,but it is possible it was assembled in-theater.

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

And to think there are people out there that would reblue this beauty because it doesn't "shine". I often take my well worn hunting guns out for a walk, sit by a campfire and just wonder where they have been and what they have done to get the wear they have. I can imagine how many nights this was at your fathers side as a last hope for waking in the morning. My father-in-law carried such a rig while flying the ball on a B-17.

I would be careful how much you shoot it as the slide is "soft" and you never know when it will crack. you will find that being said on the 1911forum. price wise and for sentimental reasons that is valuable pistol

If it were mine I'd simply load up some mild loads and fire occasionally. When actually shooting a new recoil spring might be wise to use. A really mild load I use for really old guns is:

230 grain RNL (hard cast) bullet over 4.3 grains of W231. It will reliably cycle the action and is a real pussy cat on both you and the gun. I have not Chronographed this particular load but would suspect it to run about 675 fps out of a standard bbl. 1911.

That's a beauty by the way and a great memoir!

Chief38 that 4.3 gr. 231 is the same load I have used for 30 years with a 200 gr H&G cast SWC as my bullseye load. One of the most accurate loads I ever developed. If memory serves me right the 200 gr. goes 738 fps.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Is this "sloppy wartime production", or "Colt, who has been in the arms business for 100 years, does not know how to make steel"?

Do you also suggest not shooting your preWar S&Ws because THEIR steel is soft and will crack?

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I always take precautions

the first slides were soft and then in the middle 1940's the slides were partially hardened in the slide stop notch and the locking lugs. then a few years later they hardened the complete slide. I would say they were finally getting it right. you can read into it all you want. if you go to the 1911forum and look in the USGI section you will find all of the information you need. look for comments by DSK and 1saxman as they know as much about military 1911's as a lot of the guys know about S & W's on this forum. if you take the 1911 shown by Doc you have a pistol that might be worth several thousand dollars. if you shoot it and the slide cracks all you have is a paperweight with no value what so ever.

Very nice. Thanks for posting.
I wish my father would have brought his home.

Even worse, someone would want to make it "correct".

Very nice Doc44! Keeping your father' kit together and treasured is a great way to keep his memory alive.

I have an Ithaca M 1911 A1 which my great-uncle carried in WWII.
Tried to upload some pics but the uploads keep failing...may try again later

I have some doubts about this 'soft slide' thing. During the '20s and '30s there was lots of pistol competition going on and a lot of 45s shot a lot of GI ball. You didn't hear about cracked slides then.

I have a civilian Colt, SN C 33. A Fort Wayne cop took it off a cabbie in the '30s, accurized it and shot it in competition. I don't know how much he shot it or what he fed it. I bought it in 1958 and shot it for two years on the Army Air Defense Command pistol team. I shot it about eight months each year, around 50 rounds per day, five days a week; that's many thousands of rounds of GI ball, mostly ECS 43 steel case. Lost a few extractors, they'll last 1000-2000 rounds of steel. As far as the pistol is concerned, there's a little bit of peening on the slide stop notch but that's all. I wouldn't hesitate to campaign it again.

Mine is a Remington Rand mfg mid 1943. Went in on Normandy, through France and Germany, and on until the late 60's. Then issued to me.
No clue how many rounds have been through that one. Thousands in my hand. Changed out the recoil spring, but nothing else.

Great story and txs for sharing!!!

I wil never understand how people can walk those things to a pawn shop.

This is family history at its best!

Some of the kids just don't care. Normandy may as well have been the Romans fighting the Celts as far as they are concerned. It's just dusty old history to them. They will just drop off their grandfathers WWII uniform at Good Will after checking the pockets for money. So sad.

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AL
Pax Per Potens

My Dad also carried a 1911, unfortunately I don't have it , but I have a good story about it.
My Dad was in the 3rd inf div-same outfit as Audi Murphy- he was a machine gunner- the .30 cal aircooled Browning-
After they captured Neurnberg they were forming up for a victory parade/march thru the Olympic stadium which was home to those big Nazi ceremonies . My Dad was fresh from the front all dirty and tired when he was seen by some officer who said :"hey you soldier get over here and get in line. The spot in line was the 1st man on the 1st row of the div. All because he was wearing his sidearm and they needed one more man with a side arm to fill out the line. For many years when ever we were watching War films he would point out himself and retell the story. Her was a great and very funny guy. You all have probably seen the film it`s the one where they blow up the big Swastica into a million pieces.

What a treasure. Never sell it. Shoot it very sparingly with mild loads. Clean it lovingly and wipe it down often. If you have a child, make sure they know that that weapon stays in the family FOREVER. It should still be in the family in 2100.

I was watching Pawn Stars once. Guys in their 40's bringing in their father's WW II stuff. One guy had a map of Normandy marked with all the emplacements and landing zones. Was marked Top Secret and judged to be authentic and priceless by the expert. His dad drove the boats that landed the men on the beach. Guy sold it for around 3 grand.

Another guy brought in his dad's bomber jacket. The squadron patch indicated his dad flew with a unit that had to climb over some mountains somewhere. Only problem is the mountains were higher than the plane was capable of going, so many of them never made it. Guys father completed something like 20 flights. Jacket was judged authentic and priceless. Guy sold it

Two idiots who sold a piece of family history for chump change to gamble. Pissed me off mightily.

My dad was 3rd Armored and also at the Battle of The Bulge. He brought back his 1911 and a P38. He had them in a bag and put the bag down to buy a train ticket home in NYC and the bag walked off.

I have owned a few veteran 1911's and carried a couple in Vietnam that were older than I was. I would not be the least afraid to use your dad's gun to defend against any enemy.

Nice looking 1911. If it is a pre late 1918 serial it would have us property marked on the right side of the frame. Is it marked? The vast majority of 1911 frames were marked on the left side and yours is not. For some reason it was very common for people to remove the 1911 us property mark. Would like to see a pic of the right side of the pistol

Doc,
My father was also in a coastal artillery battalion in No. Africa, Italy, Corsica & France. I have several photos of him armed with or displaying a M1 Garand, Thompson & either a S&W 1917 or Victory model revolver. He never did bring any of them home though.

My older brother and especially me wore out almost all his uniforms in the 50's. I think he has one set left that Mom put away in the cedar chest and wouldn't let us kids have.

Pop was with the 505th Coastal Artillery. After VE Day while waiting in line to go to Infantry Training he was called out by his 1st Sergeant and sent home on "points". He was a T5 and had 33 months overseas.

Pop will be 94 next April.

LTC

MajorD...the .45 is marked UNITED STATES PROPERTY on the right side of the frame.

Bill