Thought I'd pass on to you all 1911 buffs something that came to me via my Benton County, Tenn Geneological society newsletter. I'll just post as I received it and the photos...interesting stuff
Rick Lambert Benton County geneological Society
This special item is from my friend, and former shipmate, Jim Rothermel of Pennsylvania...
SUBJECT: Marine's .45 shot by sniper on Iwo Jima
This belongs in a museum! WWll memorabilia!!!
One of the older technicians at work was telling me a story
today about a pistol that was in his in-laws family.
He tells me that his wife's late father, who was a Marine in the
battle of Iwo Jima, had brought back his pistol from the war. I'm
thinking, ok must be a nice old 1911 model, one that has probably
seen more than a few soldiers hands. Then comes the rest of the
story.
Turns out that the guy's father in law had a camera with him in his
sack, and had taken some pictures of when they raised the flag on Mt.
Suribachi. He submitted his photo, but it was not chosen as the one
that is now famous. The family still has this picture hanging in
their living room.
A few days after the flag raising, the Japanese attacked the
Marines, and another fight broke out. As they are in the middle of
everything, a Japanese sniper takes a shot at him. The bullet hits
him in the right wrist, and hits his gun hanging from his belt. The
round, after completely disabling his right hand, penetrates his
leather pistol holster and embeds itself into the slide of his 1911.
Fragments from the round penetrate through the other side of
the holster, and into his leg, injuring him further. The Marine was
able to get to the medic, where he was then evacuated to care for
his injuries.
So the technician asks me if I would like to see it. After telling
him the obvious, he calls his wife's brother and asks if he could
bring it up to the shop.
Here are the pictures I took after listening to the same story again
from the Marine's son. (it was a good story, I had no problem
listening twice.)
I asked him if he would mind me posting them on here, as long as I
blocked out the serial number. He said go right ahead.
Although I had to blur out the serial #, it fell into the early/mid
600,000 range. Found this Colt record: S/N 450,000 to 629,500
= Oct. 24, 1918 to April 10, 1919
The Marine's name was Horace Arthur "Arty" Smith. He passed away
3 years ago.
