Owen Baggett holds the title as the only man to ever shoot down a aircraft with a 1911 pistol.īy the end of WW2 so many 1911 pistols had been built that the Government canceled all post war contracts, and chose to rebuild guns coming back from the battle fields. Sources on the ground said they later found the plane, crashed, and the pilot, who had been ejected, with a single bullet hole in his head. When he did, Baggett pulled up his pistol and fired four rounds. The pilot came slowed the plane to almost a stall and opened the cock pit to get a better look at his victim. One of the pilots came close to Baggett as he parachuted and pretended to be dead. By the end of the war, less then 600,000 had actually been produced.Ī example of a stamped Springfield 45 pistolĭuring WW2 Owen Baggett used a 1911 pistol to shoot down a Japanese Zero pilot while parachuting after his bomber was destroyed. By October 1918 the Government had handed out contracts for more then 2.7 million 1911 pistols. When the war ended in in November 1918, the contracts were dropped with the other companies. North American Arms only completed a small number of tool room pistols, and none ever actually made it to battle. Out of these, Remington and North American Arms were the only two to complete any pistols.
Contracts to build M1911s were given to several companys including National Cash Register Company, North American Arms, Savage Arms, Caron Brothers, Borroughs Adding Machine Company, Winchester, Remington-UMC, Lanson Monotype Company, and Savage Munitions. There is only so much that a company to do to increase production. At this point in time, Colt was the primary manufacturer of both the M1911, and the US military's machine guns. When the United States entered the war in April 1917 the US had about 75,000 M1911s on hand, manufactured by both Colt, and Springfield Armory. The M1911 saw its first serious use in World War 1.
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