Royal Flying Corps, Royal Air Force after about 1918

Does it have squadron numbers on the upper backstrap?

Yes Sir!

''42/RFC/90''

So likely No. 42 Squadron RFC. It has a wikipedia entry

No. 42 Squadron RAF - Wikipedia

Air to air combat with 2nd model 455s? That is seriously rugged!

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Randy
Provenance nerd

On the 1st April 1918 actually; April Fools Day!

Given that the RAF has just decided to allow any form of hair cut or style, and transgender forms of address, the date was well chosen. Also Station Commanders walking around in uniform with hands in pockets. It just took 102 years to happen!

Peter
RAF (the real one) retired

Big1911, 42/RFC/90 is the 42nd Squadron, Royal Flying Corps,rack # 90. As you may know the late Larry Gaertner & I collected RFC guns and were planning a display for the S&WCA Symposium, when he unexpectedly passed away . The 42nd Squadron was a training and home defense squadron for new pilots and aircrewman. Between us, Larry & I had about a dozen, or so, T-Locks & 2nd Model .455 HEs with RFC markings & history. One of these in my collection is a 2nd Model .455 issued to 1st Lt Duerson Knight, an American who joined the RFC 1st Sq, became an Ace and transferred to the US Eagle Sq when the US entered the war. He shotdown 10 German aircraft. His S&W has a small chunk of metal out of the grip strap where a German machine gun bullet struck it ! RFC records recorded an incident where Lt. Asher of 27th Sq. drove off an attacking German plane with his S&W revolver when his machine gun jammed. British military ordnance rules required a unit's armorer to stamp each revolver with the sq, #, rack # and year of acceptance. War time extengiencies often caused this effort to be overlooked, so many RFC guns have only partial stampings. My T-LocK, ser. # 800, has complete set of stamps however and David Penn, Curator at the Imperial War Museum, London, and S&WCA member, told me that was the only gun he had ever seen that was fully compliant with all it's stampings and it served with the Sq giving air support ( two aircraft ! ) to the Bengal Lancers and Lawrence of Arabia. There's a lot of history behind these RFC S&Ws ! I have copies of most of the WW1 RFC records, so if any Forum members have RFC gun I may be able to give you their Squadron action history. Ed

Well that’s just great ! Something else I HAVE to have !
Seriously interesting thread, talk about wishing guns could talk.
Thanks to all past and present collectors for the time spent researching this.

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kbgrips.com

From some of the stories I've heard and read about it was all too common for pilots to trade shots with each other with pistols, rifles, shotguns. As terrible as war is, those were the truly great days of aviation battle. I'm sure there are arguments but considering the rudimentary flying conditions and fairly elemental fire-control systems, banging away at each other with pistols seems fair enough to me.

I think "all too common" may be overstating it a bit, and the emphasis should probably be on "stories"

While trying to shoot at each other with single shot guns, both pistols and rifles, seems to have been tried by pilots and observers at the start of the war, the efficacy was pretty much zero.

And having personally both flown some aerobatics, and flown an open-cockpit bi-plane (although not one in the other), it is quite clear to me why that's not a very practical idea.

By 1915 various methods of mounting machine guns had been devised that didn't risk shredding your own plane. Then Fokker's interruptor gear became operational, and the Allies soon caught up. The real fighter plane was born.

So it's unlikely this .455 HE was even used in aerial combat