Lore of the Corps
For decades, troops lived by Colt’s stopping power
By Charles A. Jones - Special to the Times
Posted : August 06, 2007

During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. military realized that its standard-issue .38-caliber handgun lacked sufficient stopping power, and it had to find a replacement.

The solution: the Colt .45-caliber revolver.

In the late 1890s, designer John Browning developed the Model 1911 .45-caliber revolver for Colt Firearms, and the government adopted it from among competing designs.

The .45-caliber cartridge’s stopping power proved itself in World War I in short-range trench combat.

Minor postwar modifications produced the Model 1911A1, which saw widespread use during World War II.

In “Shots Fired in Anger,” his book about World War II weapons, Army Lt. Col. John George wrote that the .45’s primary advantage was its size, allowing him to fight off enemies jumping into his foxhole — which was too small to accommodate a rifle.

Although reliable, Colts had several disadvantages, such as a strong recoil, limited magazine capacity (it could hold only seven cartridges), and the danger of lowering a cocked hammer on a chambered cartridge.

The shooter had to hold the hammer with his thumb, pull the trigger and lower the hammer fully, or to half-cock. A slip of the thumb could cause an unintended discharge.

Troops could carry Colts with a round chambered and the hammer back, with or without the safety engaged. The danger of this can easily be imagined, especially since the pistol could discharge if dropped.

Another disadvantage was the weapon’s single-action mechanism, meaning that with a cartridge in the chamber and hammer down, troops had to cock the hammer before pulling the trigger.

George also condemned the handgun’s weight — 2.4 pounds unloaded, 3 pounds loaded.

“[It] weighed a ton in either hip or shoulder holster, and your wrist would even get tired holding it while you dozed,” he wrote.

Medal of Honor citations often mention pistols, although not by name or caliber.

One Medal of Honor recipient, Marine Staff Sgt. John McGinty, gave credit to the Colt .45 for saving his life in a firefight during the Vietnam War.

When five enemy soldiers tried to outflank McGinty, he fired 20 rounds from his revolver to protect himself, killing all five of his targets, he said in the History Channel documentary “Guns of Valor.”

“Were it not for the Colt .45, I would be dead,” he said. “[It] is the finest weapon the armed forces could carry.”

The .45 remained the military’s standard-issue weapon until 1990, when the services replaced it with the M9 Beretta pistol.

The Beretta has a larger, 15-round magazine capacity, weighs less and can fire double-action — meaning it can be carried safely with a round in the chamber, so the shooter pulls the trigger to fire if the safety is off and hammer down. Also, the pistol’s cocked hammer can be lowered by using the safety alone, without pulling the trigger.

Many complain that the Beretta’s 9mm cartridge lacks the .45’s stopping power, but recent efforts to replace Berettas with a jointly developed .45 pistol were halted.

Charles A. Jones is a lawyer and Marine Corps Reserve colonel in Norfolk, Va.

Ellie