TITANIUM

In late 1917 and early 1918, the government approached both Remington-U.M.C. and Winchester Repeating Arms Co. about manufacturing the M1911. Remington-U.M.C.'s Bridgeport, Connecticut plant was the largest in the United States at that time, and production lines at the 1.6 million square-foot complex were turning out a variety of arms, including the M1917 bolt-action rifles and Browning .50 caliber machine guns, as well as the M1891 Mosin-Nagant rifles for the Russian government. In nearby New Haven, Winchester also produced M1917 rifles, in addition to Browning Automatic Rifles and M1897 trench shotguns. Both companies received contracts for 500,000 M1911s. Under terms of their agreements, pistols manufactured by these two firms were to be completely interchangeable with those produced by Colt and Springfield Armory.

However, while Colt provided technical assistance in the form of sample pistols and production drawings, problems quickly arose. In addition to numerous discrepancies, these drawings contained only nominal dimensions and no tolerances.

In order to enable Winchester to channel its efforts toward production of other urgently needed arms, the Chief of Ordnance recommended that Winchester's contract for the M1911 be transferred elsewhere. Though the company's quota was cut from 500,000 to 100,000, the agreement remained in effect until December 4, 1918. No completed pistols were produced, and Winchester later transferred all parts and assemblies then on hand to Springfield Armory.

Finding it easier to make their own blueprints based on measurements obtained from the Colt-produced sample pistols rather than reconcile more than 400 known discrepancies, Remington-U.M.C. created a set of "salvage drawings" that were later used by other contractors as well. The Army suspended its contract with Remington-U.M.C. on December 12, 1918, but allowed the company to manufacture additional examples to reduce its inventories of various parts on hand. All told, nearly 22,000 M1911s were delivered to the government before Remington-U.M.C. shut down its production line. In the summer of 1919, the company turned over its pistol manufacturing equiement to Springfield ARmory, where it was placed in storage until the Second World War.

In addition to Colt, Remington-U.M.C., and winchester, the Army also issued contracts to several other companies, including North American Arms Co. (Quebec, Canada), A.J. Savage Munitions Co. (San Diego), National Cash Register Co. (Dayton, Ohio), Lanston Monotype Co. (Philadelphia), Caron Brothers Manufacturing Co. (Montreal, Canada), Savage Arms Co. (Utica, NY), and Burroughs Adding Machine Co. (Detroit, Mich). Most of these contracts were issued during the final three months of the war, and all outstanding pistol orders were canceled by early 1919. While some were able to produce parts and assemblies, only Colt, Remington-U.M.C., and North American Arms succeeded in manufacturing completed pistols.

The North American Arms Co., which was organized and incorporated on June 28, 1918, secured a contract from the U.S. Army to manufacture the M1911 in place of the defunct Ross Rifle Co. of Quebec. At the outbreak of war in 1914, Ross was producing the Canadian Army's standard straight-pull rifle, but combat use proved these arms to be unsatisfactory. Canadian troops switched to British made Enfields, and the Ross Rifle Co. eventually went out of business. North American's contract of July 1, 1918, called for the productin of 500,000 pistols at a price of $15 (U.S.) each, and the U.S. government agreed to furnish raw materials in return for reimbursement through deductions on invoices for finished pistols. Lacking its own production facilities, North American leased the former Ross Rifle plant for this purpose. The Army canceled its contract with North American Arms on December 4, 1918, just as the first prototypes were being assembled. No pistols were delivered to U.S. authorities, but approximately 100 toolroom samples were produced. These are among the rarest of all M1911 pistols in existence.

There is much conflicting information regarding the wartime manufacture of .45 auto pistols at Springfield Armory, with some sources indicating that as many as 45,000 were produced there in 1918. Prior to U.S. entry into the war, Springfield Armory had produced the M1911 under license from Colt, but the M1*** rifle had become Springfield's chief product by 1917. The armory had no separate facilities for the manufacture of rifles and pistols, and as the demand for rifles rose in the spring of 1918, the Ordnance Department approved a request by Springfield Armory's commanding officer to convert the plant for rifle production. In addition, annual reports from Springfield indicate that fewer than 2,5000 M1911s were produced in 1917, but make no mention of the production of completed pistols during the following year.

Between May 1917 and October 1918, the government contracted for the production of more than 2.7 million M1911 pistols. By the war's end, more than 500,000 had been delivered at an average cost of $15 each. Though the final tally fell far short of the millions of pistols ordered by the Army, those that were produced provided American soldiers with an effective close range personal defense arm. Many of these pistols were "casualties of war," with some being destroyed, lost, or captured, while thousands more were "appropriated" by the soldiers who used them and the brought them home as souvenirs of their service abroad

The Armistice did not bring an end to fighting for all U.S. troops. After Russia signed a separate peace with the Kaiser in early 1918, the Allies organized expeditionary forces made up of 100,000 troops from 14 countries, including 10,000 Americans, and dispatched them to northern Russia and Siberia, ostensibly to secure railheads and safeguard stockpiled war materiel against seizure by German troops. Fighting both hostile Red Army units and temperatures as low as -60 degrees, more than 700 U.S. troops were killed or wounded before they were withdrawn in January 1920.

During the final year of what came to be known as the Great War, the Model 1911 saw widespread use in the hands of American servicemen, during which time these arms first carved a place in the annals of U.S. military history. Among the Model 1911 pistols on display at the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Va, are two Colt-produced examples, one of which bears U.S. Navy markings and the other, featuring ornately-carved wooden grips, was carried by a U.S. officer in the Siberian Expedition. Other M1911s in the museum colleciton include a REmington-U.M.C. model, a rare Springfield-produced, NRA-marked example, and an equally rare North American Arms toolroom prototype bearing the date of December 7, 1918 on the right side of the slide.

Exactly 23 years later, Japanese pilots attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The events of that "Day of Infamy" brought the United States into the Second World War, a conflict in which the legend of the Colt .45 auto would continue to grow.



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