[Milsurplus] 1942 aircraft radio installation photo

[travisrdavis at gmail.com]

Message: 6
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:48:03 -1000
From: "Michael" <wh7hg.hi at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] 1942 aircraft radio installation photo
To: "'Military Surplus Mail List'" <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Message-ID: <2B8789E1E2774E14ACA39AFAA01D6A77 at kongo>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

The Bureau of Aeronautics made the Smith & Wesson "Victory" model .38 the  
only sanctioned pistol for Navy and Marine Corps aviators in the 1942-1943  
time frame. All other pistols were verboten, especially M1911s. I remember  
reading the copy of the order (that we have in our collections at work)  
while doing research for our senior aviator's stateroom. Which not to say  
that he didn't carry a M1911, a lot of pilots carried all kinds of  
unsanctioned weapons -especially in the S. Pacific and on some of the  
central Pacific islands.

It was our first inclination was to put a non-firing replica M1911 in that  
stateroom, because in TEXAS' after action report for Operation Torch is an  
account of one of TEXAS' aviators strafing a German motorcycle w/sidecar  
with his M1911 after his two .30 cals ran dry. Of course this is the same  
pilot that disable three German tanks and flipped another tank on its roof  
with a depth charge -which allowed an imperiled Army infantry company to  
hold their tenuous position.

Best Regards,

Travis


-----Original Message-----
From: mac [mailto:w7qho at aol.com]
> My uncle, a Marine F4U
> pilot in the Pacific carried a side arm but I remember him saying that
> he had to go to the civilian market to find a shoulder holster for
> it. Don't remember just what kind of a piece he was packing.......

Most likely an M1911A1 .45 ACP semiautomatic. A shoulder holster makes
sense in a fighter cockpit but the issue holster was the commonly found hip
holster. The Corps didn't have what he needed so, yes, he went to an
outside provider. I wouldn't doubt others did as well and not just in the
Marine Corps. It's part of "whatever it takes to get the job done using
available resources." The civilian market is just such a resource.

Best regards,

Michael, WH7HG BL01xh
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx
http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/
http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com
Hiki N?!