"A pistol in every post."
The Colt M1911 pistol, Signal Corps photo (circa 1918)
This thread is for photographs documenting the military use of our pistol: the when, where, how and by whom. All contributions, whether from personal collections or found photos, are welcome, as well as all information about the photo you might care to share--within the normal standards of decorum for the Forum.
This is intended as a continuation of a much less well-located thread of some length, with a great many photos posted by a variety of collectors and history buffs, and started and cultivated by the distinguished scholar and all-around raconteur, Mr. Charlie Flick: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ The old thread, and its three preceding threads, can all be viewed at these links:
http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=40856&page=1
http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.ph...ht=period+pics
http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.ph...ghlight=period
http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.ph...ghlight=period
There are a few duplicates in the above threads, mostly my errors, I notice, but the links are still active. Altogether, this forum has been very lucky to have so many knowledgeable collectors share both the photos and their context with us. I very much hope all of our previous interlocutors will join us here, now that this thread has a permanent location on the board.
Since the photos I will be sharing are archival, we especially prize the posting of personal or unpublished pictures, and the stories that go with them. And since my archival sources are largely American, we are actively seeking photos from all of the countries that have at one time or another adopted our pistol for military use:
Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Norway, Pakistan, The Philippines, South Korea, South Vietnam, the Republic of China, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. I am informed that Luxembourg acquired some 41 pistols from the US: I don't hold out a lot of hope for those, but the pistols once used by Austria would be nice to see.
Anyone who can add to the above list, please let us know. Also, if you are browsing the thread and spot an error, or wish to comment on a particular post, please drop in--no matter how old the post, or how many pages behind it might be. Time is relative, in this thread.
With that said, we will start this week with a series of photos by Margaret Bourke-White http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bourke-White , taken while a LIFE correspondent in Italy, in 1945.
LIFE/Margaret Bourke-White photo
The "sweetheart" stocks of Lt. John Ernser.
Margaret Bourke-White portrait of Lt. John Ernser, 26, 88th Division, Loaino, Italy, April, 1945.
http://www.lonesentry.com/unithistor...try/index.html
I will be posting a "flurry" of pics, if you will, to get the thread off to a rolling start: I have three more posts of Margaret Bourke-White's photos in Italy to roll out today or tomorrow; after that I will try to post one 1911-related photo each week.
Additional keywords: sweetheart grips, plexiglass, photo of girlfriend
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