Why General Pershing Demanded the M1911 for All Soldiers (400,000 Were Issued Old Army Revolvers GI)

Описание: In 1917, General "Black Jack" Pershing issued one of the most ambitious commands in American military history: every combat soldier in France would carry a sidearm. The Army had just adopted the revolutionary Colt M1911 — but there were nowhere near enough. What happened next is a story of ingenuity, improvisation, and the brutal arithmetic of industrial warfare that sent over 300,000 American Doughboys into the trenches of World War I carrying a revolver instead.

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📚 HISTORICAL SOURCES
BOOKS:
▸ Crocker III, H.W. The Yanks Are Coming! A Military History of the United States in World War I — Regnery History, 2014
▸ Canfield, Bruce N. U.S. Infantry Weapons of World War II — Andrew Mowbray Publishers, 1994
▸ Pershing, John J. My Experiences in the World War (2 vols.) — Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1931 (Pulitzer Prize, History, 1932)
▸ Crowell, Benedict. America's Munitions 1917–1918 — U.S. Government Printing Office, 1919
ARTICLES / JOURNALISM:
▸ "Valuable Service: The U.S. Model of 1917 Revolvers" — American Rifleman (NRA Official Journal)
▸ "1911s of the First World War" — Rock Island Auction Company Blog, February 2014
▸ "The West's Twilight: S&W's 1917 .45 ACP" — GUNS Magazine, June 2022
▸ "The Springfield & Colt Model 1911 Hybrid: A Result of WWI Production Issues" — American Rifleman
▸ "Black Jack in Cuba: General John J. Pershing's Experience in the Spanish-American War" — Army History, The Army Historical Foundation, April 2016
▸ "The Colt 1911" — Warfare History Network, August 2022
▸ "Great War N-Frame: The Smith & Wesson 1917 .45 ACP" — Guns.com, March 2023

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