Following the jump into Normandy, Lt. Col. Robert G. Cole of the 101st Airborne Division carried his Colt in the week after D-Day, holding a hard-pressed position until relieved by an armored column. At one point he used his pistol butt to knock on a tank turret to get the occupants’ attention.
An M1911 action fought against appalling odds occurred near Basancon, France, on Sept. 7, 1944. Manning a 3rd Division observation post, Technician 5th Grade Robert D. Maxwell and two other soldiers were armed only with pistols due to the weight of field telephones and wire spools they carried. Thus, the Americans were vastly outgunned when a German platoon assaulted the position, supported by automatic weapons. The attackers must have been confident of success as they advanced within 10 yards of the observation post, but the three G.I.s used their Colts to prevent the enemy from coming closer. However, a German tossed a grenade into the position. Maxwell instantly grasped a heavy blanket and threw himself on the grenade before it exploded, preventing harm to his men. The enemy withdrew, and though badly wounded, Maxwell miraculously survived.
Not only infantrymen used the service pistol in Medal of Honor actions. Two tankers, 2nd/Lt. James L. “Red” Harris and S/Sgt. Clyde L. Choate, were decorated for their exploits in France that October. Harris died after his action, but Choate survived.
In December Cpl. Henry F. Warner of the Big Red One used a bazooka and his Colt to stop a German armored thrust. Warner’s citation says he won a pistol duel with the commander of a panzer threatening to overrun his position. The tank withdrew but the gallant North Carolinian was killed the next day.
Using a sidearm in Medal of Honor combat proved a high-risk venture in World War II. Of the 20 known recipients, 12 were killed. It’s worth noting that two other Medals went to G.I.s who used Lugers and an unidentified German pistol during their actions.
Korea
The survival odds were even worse in Korea, as seven of the 12 men lost their lives. The first recipient was SFC Ernest R. Kouma, another armored trooper, who used his M1911 during the desperate fighting the summer the war began in 1950. As before, the recipients ranged from privates to lieutenant colonels, with nine soldiers and three Marines represented.
An event eerily reminiscent of Sgt. Turner’s posthumous action on Saipan occurred in June 1951. Private First Class Jack Hanson, a 20-year-old Mississippian, volunteered to cover the withdrawal of four wounded men from his squad. When his platoon counterattacked, his body was found with machine gun ammunition expended, his right hand grasping an M1911 with the slide locked back, and a bloody machete in his left hand. More than 20 enemy bodies were found nearby.
The last Korean War M1911 award went to Cpl. Dan D. Schoonover, an engineer of the 7th Infantry Division. He was decorated for a three-day action in July 1953, the month the armistice was signed. After extraordinary heroics in reducing enemy bunkers, Schoonover was killed while defending his position successively with a Browning machine gun, a BAR, and finally his pistol.
Vietnam
During the Vietnam War, pistols were perhaps best known in the esoteric role of “tunnel rat” wherein single soldiers squirmed into Viet Cong tunnels too small for anything but a handgun. Of the seven Medal of Honor pistol actions in Vietnam, three were performed by leathernecks. The most notable occurred in July 1966 when Staff Sgt. John J. McGinty of the 3rd Marine Division single-handedly re-established contact with a missing squad, saw North Vietnamese flanking the squad, and killed five NVA with his Colt. The last recorded MOH pistol action of the war occurred in January 1969 when Capt. Harold A. Fritz used his M1911 and a bayonet to repulse an enemy ambush of his armored cavalry convoy.
One of the most remarkable Medals of Honor in any war involved a tank driver. In January 1968, Sp5 Dwight H. Johnson’s “track” became immobilized in an ambush. He dismounted, emptied his M1911’s magazines in killing several North Vietnamese, then returned to his Patton for a submachine gun and carried a casualty to safety. Next he employed the main gun on the platoon leader’s tank, used his pistol again, and finally a Browning .50 cal. For variety of arms in a single MOH action, Johnson undoubtedly sets the record. However, barely three years later he was killed during a robbery in his hometown of Detroit.
Somalia And Beyond?
Twenty-four years passed before the next Medal of Honor event for the ageless Colt—a period equal to the span between 1918 and 1942. In Mogadishu, Somalia, on Oct. 3, 1993, two Delta Force snipers volunteered for insertion near the wreckage of a downed helicopter. Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon and SFC Randall D. Shughart were landed 100 meters from an UH-60 Black Hawk shot down by Somali warlords. Crash survivors were completely isolated and in danger of being overrun by hordes of Somalis, but Gordon and Shughart insisted on trying to cover the rescue attempt. With their long rifles of limited use in the crowded, narrow streets, they used their Colts as necessary until reaching the helicopter and fired most of their ammunition. When Shughart was fatally wounded, Gordon retrieved a carbine with five rounds from the wreck, gave it to the injured pilot and said, “Good luck.” He then continued firing his M1911 until killed. The Black Hawk pilot survived capture and eventually was released. Press reports stated that 300 or more Somalis and 18 Americans had been killed in the action, which included an abortive rescue by troops in trucks.
Thus far all the Medals of Honor awarded in the war against terrorism have been posthumous—although at the time of this writing a very much alive S/Sgt. Salvatore Giunta is poised to be bestowed with America’s highest combat honor for his valor in Afghanistan. In any case, the old warhorse shows no sign of retirement, despite its nominal replacement by the M9. But as long as special operations forces continue carrying John Browning’s superb sidearm, the potential remains unabated as the M1911 reaches its centennial.
