52 MODERN WAR 1 | MAY–JUN 2012

Weapons

Colt vs. Beretta I n March 1911, following five

years of competitive testing, the US armed forces adopted

what would become one of the most famous sidearms in military history: the Colt .45 M1911 A1 single-action, semi-automatic pistol. Incredibly, it remained the standard sidearm for several generations of American soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Coast Guardsmen, outlasting four service rifles during that time.

The initial contract with Colt

(Springfield, Massachusetts) was issued on 5 May 1911 for 31,344 units priced at a $14.25 apiece. An additional $1.35 was also allocated to cover the price of two additional magazines and spare parts for each pistol. Within six months another 50,000 of the popular new firearm were on order.

Reportedly, the first combat use of the weapon was against charging Moro warriors in the Philippines, were the Army was fighting insurgents in America’s new colonial possession.

The Colt was the onzly handgun whose round was powerful enough to always knock them down. The .38 caliber round of the then standard pistol lacked the stopping power to do so, as the Moros were alleged to use drugs to give themselves enhanced survivability in combat. Moreover, the Colt’s magazine provided extra rounds over that of the standard-issue revolver. The 45s thereafter came to be used in close-in combat against Mexican bandits, Nicaraguan rebels,

By Blaine Taylor

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Weapons

Russian Bolsheviks, as well as in two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.

Even so, it wasn’t the first auto-matic handgun the US military had considered. The first Colt-Browning automatic pistol prototype had debuted in 1898, but the Ordnance Department felt the design needed more work. Two years later, firearms designer John M. Browning started commercial production of the Colt .38 automatic pistol 1900 Model, the first US automatic to be made commercially.

Both the Army and Navy expressed interest in the new weapon, but testing was simultaneously continued with other makes and models, mainly because reactions from both soldiers and sailors to the Model 1900 hadn’t been good. Meanwhile the Army and Navy continued issuing the Model 1892 .30 caliber revolver, which was universally considered to be underpowered. The German Luger also failed to measure up to what the US services wanted and needed: a weapon with dependable knockdown power.

Colt stayed in the game, developing its first .45 caliber model in 1902-05. In 1907 the Ordnance Department ordered a batch of the Model 1905, but it wasn’t officially adopted. The 1907 trials featured 20 applicants, of which half were selected for further trials: Colt, Luger, Savage, two Knobles, Bergmann, White & Merrill, Webley-

Fosberry and Smith & Wesson. Five models remained in contention

after the first round of testing: the Colt, Savage and Luger automatics, as well as revolvers from Colt and Smith & Wesson. The next round saw the Ordnance Department ordering 200 each of the Colt and Savage automatics, which were all delivered in 1908.

A major factor helping the Colt bid was the fact that it could be produced at about a third the cost of the Savage entry. By 1910 the Colt entry had the clear lead, the company having made all the government’s recom-mended improvements. It then formally came into being as the “.45 Colt Automatic Pistol, Model of 1911.”

In that version, and later in the modified 1911 A1 Model, it was produced at a record 3 million units. Teething problems and tooling up delayed mass production until 1914, and only 4,214 were purchased in 1916, the last full year before the US entered the First World War. The British Royal Navy also ordered 13,500 units chambered for its .455 cartridge.

The American .45 received had received its true baptism of fire in 1916 against Pancho Villa’s bandits, and by the time the US declared war on Germany in April 1917, the military had 119,000 Colts on hand. The trench warfare in Europe convinced the top brass more soldiers should be equipped with the

powerful new sidearm. It was useful for close quarters trench fighting due to its stopping power and rapid rate of fire. Initially only officers, NCOs, cavalry and field artillerymen were issued the pistols, but by the time of the Armistice fully 70 percent of all American troops carried them. A postwar survey revealed nearly 170,000 had been reported lost, destroyed or missing, leading analysts to conclude many of the men had clandes-tinely taken their pistol home with them.

During the interwar years of 1919-39 a mere 17,000 Colts were bought. Some 7,500 more were purchased during 1939-40, and after the US entry into World War II another 2 million were acquired.

A gray metal finish was adopted during World War II, and thus the popular weapon proceeded in usage until the 1970s, when the NATO high command began lobbying for an alliance-wide adoption of a standard pistol using the same cartridge by all member countries’ armed forces.

The stage was thus set for the replacement of the Colt on 14 January 1985 by the 9mm Beretta 92 SB-F. The Beretta was a more accurate weapon at long range, and the commonality of its ammunition type across the alliance would facilitate easier logistics. Even so, when the Army made the stunning announcement that Colt – a powerful domestic US arms manufacturer for decades – had been supplanted by a