S&W 1917 in movie "Fury"

VaTom

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2016
Messages
2,240
Reaction score
5,928
Location
SW Virginia
Was watching the 2014 movie "Fury" about a tank crew in Germany in the waning days of WWII. Brad Pitt plays the leading role as the tank commander Sgt. Don "Wardaddy" Collier. He carries a .45 ACP revolver in a shoulder holster. Looks like a S&W 1917. Uses it in a couple of scenes especially at the end. Also has what looks to be a StG 44 (Strumgewehr 44).

Interesting movie. WWII history folks will like it.
 
Register to hide this ad
When Norman tries to introduce himself to the crew and gets dumped on. Reminded me of the bad old days when I was the new guy in-country. The grips on Collier's wheelgun interested me. Wish I could get a better look at them.
 
There are a couple tactical issues in the movie, but they got the weapons right - mostly, the S&W 1917 revolver is the glaring exception.

The American troops are carrying M1 Garands, while the German enlisted carry 98Ks, and the German sniper has a 98K with correct scope and mount. Even better the officers and NCOs have not just M1 Carbines, but correct for the period M1 Carbines with the early l shaped rear sight and the small barrel bands without the bayonet lug.

Brad Pitt carries a S&W 1917 with "sweetheart" grips where a picture is placed under grips cut and polished from plexiglass - a form of soldier gun art that was around at that time. But a S&W 1917 would not have been standard issue for a tank crewman. I suspect it's meant to be a 1917 that Pitt's character has had for a while and, along with the custom holster, is supposed to add to the "old salt" nature of the character.

I also noticed the crew had the later M3A1 sub machine gun with the finger hole in the bolt, rather than a charging handle. It's possible that they could have had A1s in early 1945, but not likely as they were just entered service in late 1944, and it took a while for them to trickle through the system to combat units. Not many M3A1s actually made it into combat in WWII.

----

Tank wise they had a good mix of M4 types, something that wasn't uncommon in action where units were sometimes reconstituted and where knocked out tanks (the ones that didn't burn and compromise the armor) were rebuilt at the depot level and returned to service.

Pitt's M4A2E8 is identifiable by the HVSS suspension, wide tracks, 76mm gun and diesel engine, and it's not quite accurate as the M4A2E8 never saw combat in US service. The US Army preferred the gas powered M4A3E8 - which was the same tank, with the same welded hull, T23 turret, M1 76mm gun, and HVSS suspension, but with a Ford GAA V-8 engine.
 
Last edited:
I saw the movie and found it entertaining, but never thought of it as "Historical"! Pre war Scout and Cavalry (Armor) units were mostly armed with 1917's, I felt the character was suppose to be left over from the "early days."

As a kid I had just about every imaginable holster the US used and as a teen had both the 1917 S&W and the 1911. I never found one to be better than the other for close quarters shooting. IT was and is only a matter of preference as to which is best! By the time any one was in combat you could trade for whatever you liked. My best friend's dad was a flight engineer on torpedo bombers in the south pacific and was issued a M3 grease gun. With a pouch of magazines it was heavy and cumbersome, he traded it for a 1911 with shoulder holster. When he went to PBY's (flying boats) he went to a 1928 Thompson, then a M-1 carbine (for guard duty) then back to a M3. When he mustered in San Francisco, out they wanted the 1911 back which he no longer had so they docked his pay. If he had known, he would have picked one up from the piles available in the islands! Navy/Military paper work is a strange thing! (a good mistake as well as a bad one, can follow you the rest of your life!)

Ivan
 
I think they did pretty well in the authenticity department, and I believe that extra large revolver just was a bit of "artistic license" to add to Pitt's character; a Victory model just wouldn't have looked as impressive.

My issues with the movie are mostly with the battles.

The four-minute fight with the Tiger is actually quite impressive if you don't watch it too often (which I have :)), and it does show the supposedly only surviving operational Tiger in the world (from the Bovington tank museum in Britain) in action.

But neither the early combined tank-infantry attack across the open field nor especially the final battle make much if any sense. I've disected the final fight in older threads about the movie here before and won't do so again.

But in general terms, in a war your side has decisively won, supposedly set at a time when it's basically over, making a movie about a desperate sacrificial last stand by soldiers of the winning side is just ... weird.
 
There's a fairly extensive thread/discussion from 2014 about Fury.

Click here to read it.

There are a couple of smaller threads elsewhere on the forum, if you're interested.
 
The S&W M1917 wasn't that big a reach for WW2. My dad carried my grandfather's WW1-issued M1917 in the USAAF during WW2 in lieu of a S&W Victory model.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
I could understand a trooper feeling confident with a particular sidearm and hanging onto it through a war, just because the military does or does not issue a weapon does not mean you have to use it, especially in a combat situation. They wanted to issue me an M16 in Vietnam, I asked them if I could have an M14 instead. They looked at me like I was nuts and issued me the M14. I also carried a 1911 that was relocated while left across the front seat of a jeep, the only problem I had with it was that the skipper on the boat I was on wanted it for himself and it took some serious talking on my part to keep it, issue had nothing to do with. I prefer the 1917 over just about any of the military issue 1911s I had my hands on, if your more comfortable or capable with a revolver than you are with a pistol having a extra round doesn't make that big a difference.
 
Was watching the 2014 movie "Fury" about a tank crew in Germany in the waning days of WWII. Brad Pitt plays the leading role as the tank commander Sgt. Don "Wardaddy" Collier. He carries a .45 ACP revolver in a shoulder holster. Looks like a S&W 1917. Uses it in a couple of scenes especially at the end. Also has what looks to be a StG 44 (Strumgewehr 44).

Interesting movie. WWII history folks will like it.

Pitt's character does indeed use an STG-44. It's my all-time most favored weapon ever.
 
Back
Top