Custom engraved Colt Model 1911 by Ben Shostle.
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During World War II the Colt M1911A1 was the standard sidearm of the US military, arming American soldiers across Europe, North Africa, and the Pacfic. One common practice among GI’s was to modify their pistols by replacing their grips with so called “sweetheart grips”. Soldiers would remove the standard wooden grips from their Colts, then replace them with handmade grips featuring a photograph of a loved one. The grips were made from transparent materials, such as plexiglass and whatever forms polycarbonates were available in the 1940’s. Typically, the photos used to create the grips were of wives and girlfriends, but could also include family members, parents, and other significant people.
The practice of creating custom transparent grips was not limited to sweetheart grips. Sometimes GI’s would use pinups, personal artwork, or other interesting materials. Nor was such a practice limited to Colt 1911’s. Sometime a GI would create sweetheart grips of captured enemy pistols taken as war trophies. Regardless, the customization of sidearms by American GI’s is an interesting part of World War II history, and it’s not uncommon for such pieces to be discovered by family after the death of a veteran.
While the United States did not take part in World War I until the final years of the war, it had little qualms making big bucks supplying arms to the Allied powers. One lucrative customer was Russia, who constantly needed numerous amount of arms, ammunition, and supplies in the fight against Germany. Between 1916 to 1917 the Russian government purchased 66,000 American Colt 1911 semi automatic pistols. The pistols were standard Colt 1911 commercial models, chambered in .45 acp and marked with standard Colt factory stampings. Its only identifying feature is the small Cyrilic marking “ANGL. ZAKAZY”, located on the frame under the slide and roughly translating as “English Order”. The pistols were not sold directly, but instead shipped to Britain, then shipped to Russia. Russian contract serial numbers range from C23,000 – C89,000. These pistols were never exported back to the United States, and thus are extremely rare. The example pictured above sold for $19,000.
In the 1920’s and 30’s Hyman S. (Hymie) Lehman was a small time Jewish gunsmith who worked out of a leather and saddlery shop in San Antonio, Texas. At the height of his career he invented a new type of firearm based on similar concepts used in World War I; the machine pistol. Essentially Lehman took a Colt 1911, chambered for either .45 ACP or .38 Super, and converted it to fully automatic. At full auto the 7 round magazine of a 1911 would be instantly drained, so he combined his new weapon with a custom 20 or 30 round magazine. In addition, for more control when firing the weapon he attached the foregrip from a Thompson Submachine Gun, and installed a compensator on the muzzle. The result was a very small weapon that could pour out a ton of firepower.
Obviously an ingenious design, surely the military or police would be interested in such a weapon. In fact Lehman probably could have become rich if he was awarded a government contract. However, Lehman’s clientele was made up of some very seedy characters. Infamous names such as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Roger “The Terrible” Touhy all purchased one of Lehman’s baby machine guns. Indeed, Lehman’s machine pistols became a part of the violence that was the gangster era. Baby Face Nelson even used his to kill Federal Agent W. Carter Baum and wound two others during a shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin. When questioned about the sales, Lehman simply maintained that he had no idea that the men he sold them to were dangerous criminals.
In 1934 the National Firearms Act was passed into law, outlawing the manufacture or possession of fully automatic firearms without a special government tax stamp. Earlier Texas had passed a similar state law. In 1935 Lehman was arrested for violating that law. Despite two trials he was never convicted. He died due to complications caused by Alzheimer’s Disease in 1990.
The Colt 1911A1 Brastil was an experiment conducted in 1932 by Springfield Armory to produce the Colt M1911 semi automatic pistol out of a die cast alloy called “brastil”. Brastil is an alloy of copper, zinc, and silicon which has an incredibly high tensile strength and is corrosion resistant. It was also cheaper, and using a die cast process, much easier and faster to produce. Under rigorous testing the brastil pistols proved to be reliable and rugged. However, it was found that brastil tended to warp over time. 500 brastil Colt 1911 pistols were originally ordered, of which only 200 were manufactured before production was halted. Only 2 survive today, and are in the possession of the Springfield Armory Museum.
Like the sign says, this was an attempt to create a lightweight version of the venerable Colt 1911. The final product was made out of stamped sheet metal. Unfortunatly the project totally failed since the pistol weighs 51 ounces. A normal 1911 weighs around 31 ounces. Oops!
During the Vietnam War the communist guerrilla group called the Vietcong proved to be a thorn in the side of the US Military throughout the war. When it came to weapons the Vietcong were mostly reliant on assistance from China and the Soviet Union, however there was always a shortage of weapons and ammunition. To fill in the gaps, the Vietcong often had to improvise, using creativity and human ingenuity to produce their own weapons.
One instance of this ingenuity is the Vietcong copy of the Colt 1911, a common sidearms used by the US military at the time. Produced by hand in small remote villages, bunkers, and other hideouts, they were crudely built in comparison to the quality mass produced models manufactured by Colt and other American firearms producers. Looking like bizarre parodies of a Colt 1911, these pistols were made out of whatever metal and parts could be found. Often, these pistols lacked common accessories such as sights and rifled barrels, but they were surprisingly functional. It is unknown how many were made, and since they were hand built no two are exactly the same. During the war many were brought home by American serviceman, who claimed them as war souvenirs specifically because of the novelty of the pistols.
Created by General Motors in 1947, this prototype Colt 1911 was an experiment in producing weapons out of stamped sheet metal. The idea behind this was to be able to produce a lighter version of the Colt 1911 using faster manufacturing processes and cheaper materials. The design failed, however, since a standard Colt 1911A1 weighs 39 ounces, and the new stamped version weighed 50 ounces. Only 20 prototypes were ever made.
Made during World War I by Colt license with London Armory Company, these 1911 model pistols were used as sidearms by officers in the Royal Navy. They were chambered for .455 Webley Automatic, a cartridge of similar characteristics and performance to the American .45 ACP. After World War I, most were put into storage. With the start of World War II and the British defeat at Dunkirk, they were rearseneled and issued to pilots and crew of the Royal Air Force in limited numbers as a bailout survival pistol.