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Thread: My favorite July 4 pistol

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    2nd June 2004
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    My favorite July 4 pistol

    I acquired this pistol years ago with (3) others from a former dealer/collector in Texas. I bought the gun without any story. It is a 1943 Remington Rand pistol serial number 976207. It is Du-Lite blue and has the 2nd style slide logo. I bought the pistol because it was all original and so nice...that's all. The other guns were/are nice, too.

    left view


    right view


    Later I checked the SRS web site database that used to be online and saw I had a direct hit on the serial number showing the pistol 4 July 1944 on the USS Cabot CVL-28. So I contacted Charlie Pate at SRS and sent money for the documents on that gun and some others I had direct hits on.

    I received letters and documents from the National Archives on all the pistols from SRS. Here is the copy of the document I received on this pistol. It is dated 31 July 1944 and is a loss report for the pistol. The document shows this pistol, 976207, as being lost in a plane that crashed at sea during aerial combat with the Japanese on 4 July 1944.

    Top part of the document. The pistol is listed as a Colt, but all pistols were listed that way. The serial number confirms the document is for this pistol, because Colt never had a pistol with the serial number 976207.


    Bottom part of the document


    Obviously the pistol was not lost at sea, or was at least recovered immediately. So I assumed the record in the National Archives was baloney...that someone had cooked up a story to steal a pistol. However, I bought the gun, not the story...and I had a beautiful pistol that had been asigned to the USS Cabot CVL-28 on 4 July 1944.

    From there I started researching the USS Cabot to find out all I could about her. I found all kinds of information online about a fast carrier few had ever heard of...but that had an impressive combat history in the Pacific during WWII. I found the ship had been awarded (9) Battle Stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. I found she had been in every 1944 and 1945 battle in the Pacific Theatre of operations. She had been in service, without interruption, longer than any other ship, save one. She had been hit in kamikaze attacks and still stayed in the fight without returning to port for repairs.

    Based on information at The Iron Woman Foundation: "All over the ship the scuttlebutt was that something big was up. Famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle had come aboard the U.S.S. Cabot CVL-28 at Ulithi, they had then weighed anchor and for several days steamed north into colder Pacific waters with task force 58, all the while making preparations for a major strike. Finally, on the day the operation orders were to be opened, a young officer asked Pyle if he knew what was up. Pyle knew but wasn't talking, so he asked the young man for his Zippo lighter. He scratched on the bottom of the lighter, gave it back to the officer and said, "Stick this in your pocket, and promise not to look at it until the orders are opened." Later, when it was announced that the operation orders were opened, the young officer took the Zippo from his pocket. Scratched on the bottom was one word: "Tokyo" The first all-out carrier assault on Japanese homeland was to begin and Pyle had asked to see it, so he had been assigned to the Iron Woman."

    Ernie Pyle loved and respected the men who served on the USS Cabot. You can Google his story about her and find out why...http://www.geocities.com/ww2cvl/pylecvl.html

    Ernie Pyle on the USS Cabot


    While researching the ship I ran across an online verson of a 1986 book entitled The History of the USS Cabot CVL-28, by J. Ed Hudson http://www.mcallen.lib.tx.us/books/cabot/cab00_02.htm Hudson had been an officer assigned to the Cabot during WWII and he wrote the book to preserve the ship's history for the families of the crew members. That book is filled with detailed information from the ship's log, and proved to be the key to unlock the door to this pistol's history.

    On 4 July 1944, Fighter Squadron 31 was assigned to the USS Cabot and flew combat missions at Iwo Jima. This was the toughest aerial combat in the Paciifc up to that time.

    On that day, four (4) VF31 fighters were shot down and destroyed. Three (3) VF31 pilots were killed in action. One pilot managed to limp his Hellcat back and bailed out, to be immediately recovered by one of our destroyers in the task force. That pilot was Lt.. (jg) R.C. (Bob) Wilson, a VF31 Ace credited with seven (7) aerial combat victories.

    VF31 was known as the Meat Axe Squadron. They destroyed enemy planes at a rate of more than 10:1 per man, making VF31 the squadron with the highest kill ratio per pilot in U.S. Navy history to date.

    The "Meat Axe" Squadron Insignia



    Lt. (jg) Bob Wilson


    VF31 pilots


    In the online book The History of the USS Cabot CVL-28, in the Table of Contents, there is a list of Casualties for the USS Cabot. If you go to that list and scroll down to 4 July 1944, listed there are the three (3) VF31 pilots killed in action at Iwo Jima on that date. They were:
    Lt. (jg) Loomis
    Lt. (jg) Elezian
    Lt. (jg) Hancock

    The 4th plane shot down and lost at sea from VF31 and the USS Cabot on 4 July 1944 was Lt. (jg) Bob Wilson's Hellcat. In Chapter 5, on pp. 41-42 of the online book The History of the USS Cabot CVL28 by Hudson, we read the following U.S. military press release detailing the action, with Wilson's own words:

    Lt. (jg) R. C. WILSON
    Versatility of the Navy's Hellcat fighter plane
    was demonstrated when Lt. (jg) Robert C.
    WILSON of Los Angeles, left two Japanese
    ships wrecked on a 700-mile round trip attack
    over the Philippines on 24 Sept.
    WILSON, a member of the Navy's "Meat
    Axe Squadron", Fighting 31 with a bomb on
    his plane, began attacking the anchorage, diving
    in for a low-level strafing of a gunboat. Her
    guns silenced by the attack, the gunboat started
    to burn and was beached on a reef.
    WILSON then made a masthead bombing of
    a large cargo ship, scored a direct hit and
    started large fires. He made a second strafing
    run on both ships and left them useless.
    Then on 21 Sept., WILSON brought his score
    of planes destroyed in aerial combat to six by
    shooting down a Zero after a successful bombing
    run on planes parked at Clark Field near Manila.
    WILSON, who holds the Distinguished Flying
    Cross, the Air Medal and a Gold Star in lieu
    of a second Air Medal, became eligible for the

    ~ 42 ~

    "Caterpillar Club" when he had to parachute
    to safety after his plane was hit on a 4 July
    attack against the Bonin Islands.
    "In that predawn attack, we ran into some of
    the best pilots the Japs ever put up against us,"
    WILSON said. "Until our Hellcats thinned
    them out, the Zeros outnumbered us and had
    the altitude advantage. During the fight, I
    engaged seven Zeros, damaged two and helped
    destroy another. But one of them finally got on
    my tail down close to the deck and got in plenty
    of good shots. My plane was badly damaged,
    and I was too low to bail out.
    "All I could do was sit and wait for the Jap to
    finish me off, but in the nick of time, two
    planes from my squadron came down and
    knocked off the Zero.
    "By some very strenuous operation, I managed
    to get the flying junk heap back to the Task
    Force where I bailed out and was immediately
    picked up by one of our destroyers. I learned
    later that my squadron commander, Lt. Cmdr.
    D. J. WALLACE Jr. and Lt. James T. ANDERSON,
    were the pilots that drove the
    Zero away. Lt. ANDERSON shot him down
    shortly afterwards," WILSON said.
    During his nine months of combat duty in the
    Pacific, WILSON participated in more than 30
    bombing, strafing and photo missions over
    enemy bases and shipping. These included all
    major fleet actions from the Marshall Island
    campaign through the Philippines raids in
    September.
    WILSON was one of a four-plane Hellcat
    division sent out to intercept a flight of nine
    Japanese dive bombers which were attacking his
    Task Force last March during the first Palau
    operations. In a fight of a few seconds, he shot
    down three planes as the other Hellcats downed
    the rest.
    As photographic officer of his squadron,
    WILSON made low-level photo runs over many
    enemy-held islands and obtained pictures that
    were valuable in future strikes and landing
    operations.
    Said Wilson, "The toughest one was over,
    Truk last April. I had to go down in extremely
    bad weather conditions in the most intense anti-
    aircraft fire we ever encountered."
    Two days in succession, during the June
    operations against the Marianas, WILSON
    initiated attacks against twin-engine bombers
    scouting his Task Force. WILSON engaged one
    of them alone, and after several attacks, the
    large bomber flamed and crashed into the
    ocean. He led other Hellcats in an attack on
    other bomber, damaging it and helping destroy
    it. In his first combat mission over the
    Marshalls last January, WILSON shot down a Zero
    in a dogfight.
    Wilson said of the enemy aviators, "I have a
    great deal of respect for their skill; however,
    they seem to lack the aggressive and cooperative
    spirit of our pilots. For that reason, more than
    anything else, I believe we will continue to
    knock them down at a ratio of five to one or
    better."

    Bob Wilson returned safely to the United States and became an airline pilot. I have communicated with his family in CA. Bob was found shot to death in his home back in the late 1960's.

    May he and the many other deceased men and women who have served to defend this great nation rest in peace as we celebrate our freedom that they have provided for us.

    The fireworks are symbolic. Freedom isn't free.
    A lot of people ruin old .45s by trying to improve them.
    Likes (1) :
    condition2 (2nd November 2018)

    Last edited by Scott Gahimer; 5th July 2009 at 14:29.


  2. #2
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    That is so cool!

    Thank you for that Scott.
    "The pistol, learn it well, carry it always ..." - Jeff Cooper

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Nice post.
    Thank you +1
    Ken
    "I like Colts and will die that way"
    "It seems to me that I have forgotten more than I remember"

  4. #4
    Join Date
    4th November 2005
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    A fine story and outstanding research. Very well done, and thank you, Scott.

    DVC
    adapt, improvise, overcome
    "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.", Carl Sagan
    "One should shoot as quickly as one can -- but no quicker.", Jeff Cooper

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Very cool Scott.
    Lynnie, "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. "
    - Albert Camus

  6. #6
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    31st December 2007
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    Seattle, WA
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    Fascinating history on this pistol, Scott. Thanks for sharing.

    Len

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    Great story! Neat to know where your historical firearm has been and gone through.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    24th February 2007
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    Great pistol with a great story. Congrats on a great find!
    Get Involved In Protecting Your Gun Rights And Your Life
    www.gun-politics.org
    www.FirearmsTrainingandTactics.com

  9. #9
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    Scott: Thanks for a fabulous post. A piece of history like that is truly remarkable. It's about as good as it gets.

    George

  10. #10
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    Scott,
    Thanks for the July 4th story, I really liked hearing about the history of your old 1911.
    When asked I why I carry a gun, I replied that a cop was too heavy.

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