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Author: Grumpy
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A S&W 66-2
- The SAS is getting worried that not enough posh officers are applying for jobs
- The elite British regiment has typically been led by former public schoolboys
- But increasingly working-class officers are applying to command crack troops
When your job involves abseiling out of helicopters, kicking down doors and taking out the bad guys, you might be forgiven for thinking that it doesn’t really matter what school you went to.
But the SAS is getting worried that not enough posh officers are applying to command its high-stakes operations.
The elite regiment has typically been led by former public schoolboys whose privileged education is said to instil the leadership skills and poise required.
But increasingly working-class officers are applying to command the crack troops, to the chagrin of some soldiers.
Former officers of the SAS include General Mark Carleton-Smith (pictured), the head of the Army
‘The typical SAS officer is confident, relaxed, bright and unflappable,’ said one of the regiment’s warrant officers.
‘Many of the most successful officers have been to the top public schools, but recently we have seen a number of guys coming forward who just don’t cut it. It’s a shame, but they are just not posh enough.
‘The bottom line is that the officers shouldn’t be speaking like soldiers. We don’t want officers who are shouters or know-it-alls.’
His comments might invite accusations of snobbery, but The Mail on Sunday understands that one officer recently failed the SAS selection process because it was felt he ‘lacked the sophistication’ to be able to brief Cabinet Ministers on operations.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former Private Secretary to Princes William and Harry, was also a former officer
Those applying to be SAS officers must brief a room of special forces soldiers on a potential mission and are challenged about their planning and leadership skills by invigilators.
Former officers of the SAS include General Mark Carleton-Smith, the head of the Army, and Major Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former Private Secretary to Princes William and Harry, who one source described as ‘the archetypal SAS officer’.
Both were educated at Eton, while other recent commanding officers attended Winchester and Harrow.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on special forces recruitment, but said they sought the ‘best talent from the broadest diversity of thought, skills and background’.
Author’s note—This article is part of an ongoing series on Allied small arms of World War 2. In each installment, we will endeavor to explore the humanity behind the firearms with which Allied combatants defeated the Axis powers.
General George Patton once opined, “Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.” In this series, we will investigate both the guns and the men behind them in the context of the planet’s bloodiest conflict.
The 1911A1 pistol armed generations of American GIs as they marched off to defend democracy against those who wished to snuff it. We stand on the shoulders of giants and do so frequently take our freedoms for granted.
The man was nineteen years old when he blackened his face with soot from a wood stove and crept to within scant yards of a fortified German position under cover of darkness. During the course of the next several hours, he emplaced a minefield within earshot of dozens of Wehrmacht soldiers.
He could clearly hear them laughing and talking as he methodically armed his devices and then retreated back to his own lines.
His job as a Combat Engineer carried with it all the risks of the Infantry along with the responsibility to emplace and clear minefields. He earned a Silver Star for his actions that night.
The man and his buddies once cleared a German minefield and ended up with a small mountain of disarmed Teller mines stacked up on a secluded Italian beach.
A sensible man might have blown the mines a few at a time. However, these were not sensible men. These were American teenagers. They rigged a few blocks of TNT with a generous time fuse and placed it in the stack before retreating behind an ample dune.
The resulting explosion left a crater that could be mistaken for a small harbor and blew out every window in the nearby Italian village. The force of the blast lifted him bodily off the ground as he cowered behind his little hill. He and his mates emerged, ears ringing and sinuses cleared, to laugh about the chaos they had just unleashed.
There is an immutable pathos to be found in the fact that most soldiers are really just glorified children. I know I was. What is wrong with us as a species?
The man had never before been outside Mississippi, so he was curious about Italy and the detritus of war. One afternoon after his duties were complete he struck off alone into a nearby bombed-out village simply to explore.
This was a world at war so he carried along his Colt 1911A1 pistol. In a combat zone, a man’s weapon is his constant companion. It is equal part tool and talisman, but one is never without it.
The man wandered into a massive pile of rubble that had once been a large building. In the dim light, he was fascinated with the little-broken things that defined lives once vibrant though now destroyed. Stepping through a wrecked doorway he found himself unexpectedly face to face with his German counterpart.
This other young man was likely on a similar mission, just wandering to satisfy curiosity or assuage boredom. Regardless of the impetus, fate was destined to be exceptionally cruel this day. The young German soldier carried a bolt action Kar98k rifle and was comparably alone.
Both men stared dumbstruck at each other for a pregnant moment, close enough to see the other breathe. Reflexively they scrambled for their weapons, but my buddy was faster. A single .45ACP round to the chest dropped the young German where he stood.
Practical killing is seldom like the movies. The process typically takes a while, and this was no exception. To have been both participant and witness at such close quarters changed this man forever.
This gentleman was not a professional warrior or some highly trained Specops killer. When I knew him he worked in a bank. He was background clutter in the world’s most vibrant democracy.
He and his friends were citizen soldiers who abandoned their lives to ensure the blessings of liberty for their fellow Americans for generations to come. They were heroes in every sense. More than 400,000 of them never came home. How can we ever live up to that?
The Gun
The 1911A1 pistol armed generations of American fighting men. Powerful, reliable, and mean, the 1911 is a fistful of Americana.
In the late 1800’s the US military was burning through prototype firearms at an unprecedented rate. Small arms technology was outpacing both tactics and procurement, so government arms rooms housed a uniquely variegated selection.
In a single decade, the military cycled through the M19892/96/98 Krag rifles as well as the M1895 Navy Lee. Revolvers from Smith and Wesson as well as Colt filled GI holsters. The Colt M1892 fired the .38 Long Colt cartridge.
The 1911 handgun soldiered on until the late 1980’s. Here we see Sergeant Ronald Payne wielding his 1911A1 as he explores a tunnel complex in Vietnam in 1967. I quite literally cannot imagine the kind of courage required to undertake such a thing.
The war went by several names. It was variously called the Filipino-American War, the Philippine War, or the Tagalog Insurgency. Regardless, this short but bloody conflict served as our rude introduction to the fine art of Islamic Jihad.
Muslim Moro tribesmen were known to lash wet leather thongs around their testicles that shrank as they dried, working them into a justifiable frenzy. The .38 revolvers of the day simply weren’t up to the task.
My most prized worldly possession. My wife’s grandfather carried a 1911A1 pistol throughout World War II that bore this handmade sweetheart grip. After his death, last year at age 96 custody of this priceless artifact fell to me.
John Moses Browning was the most gifted firearms designer in human history. He held 128 patents by the time he keeled over of heart failure at his workbench in 1926 at the FN factory in Liege, Belgium. When he built the US government’s new combat handgun and the cartridge it fired he took no chances.
The European standard at the time pushed a 9mm bullet that weighed 115 grains. Old John Moses just doubled that to create the .45ACP that set the standard for man-portable stopping power more than a century later.
The recoil-operated semiautomatic handgun that fired it went on to inspire fully 95% of the modern combat pistol designs available today.
We came surprisingly close to adopting a DWM Luger pistol chambered in .45ACP as an American service handgun. These original .45ACP Lugers submitted for the pistol trials in 1906 are arguably the most collectible military firearms in the world.
They are quite literally priceless today. Should you trip over one in grandpa’s attic please give me a call. Maybe we can work a deal.
DWM ultimately dropped out of the competition leaving only Savage and Colt. Over the course of a two-day period, a single sample of each fired 6,000 rounds.
The guns were simply dunked in water when they grew too hot to handle. At the end of the process, the Savage gun had suffered 37 failures. Browning’s 1911 had none.
The design was tweaked in 1924 into the 1911A1, and this was the gun my friend carried in Italy. I was issued one myself back when I first donned a US Army uniform of my own.
When American GIs of both genders are finally packing phased plasma rifles for their forays downrange, old geezers like me will still be looking with longing admiration at the classic manly lines of John Browning’s martial masterpiece.
Trigger Time
The GI-issue 1911 helped free continents through decades of dependable service
When John Moses Browning needed to build a new cartridge he simply took the 9mm Parabellum (left) and doubled it. The resulting finger-sized round sets the standard for stopping power even today.
In its original GI guise, the 1911A1 is indeed a handful. Recoil is not insubstantial, and there are only seven rounds in the magazine. Additionally, before we started lowering and flaring all of our ejection ports the thing was notorious for dropping empties onto the top of your head.
That first 1911A1 I was issued rattled like a tambourine when you shook it, but it went off every single time you pulled the trigger. I’ve shot lots more accurate handguns, but ours had been through the rebuild process a time or three by the time they fell into our mitts in the late 1980’s. Those tired old pistols had been new when my pal earned his Silver Star in Italy.
The rounds are as big as my finger, and they punch nearly half-inch holes, even with pedestrian ball ammunition. When stoked with modern expanding ammo the downrange results are undeniably devastating.
I once saw a guy who had been shot in the mouth with one of these things. The back of his head sported a hole that would accommodate a mature orange. It didn’t hurt long.
Ruminations
The 1911A1 is a handful in action. Recoil is not insubstantial, but the gun is unnaturally reliable.
The 1911 pistol is as much a part of the fabric of America as is baseball, fast cars, and pretty girls. Literally, countless young men headed off into harm’s way with one of Mr. Browning’s hand cannons tucked into their belts. When life got extra sucky these guys knew they packed the best combat handgun on the planet.
War defines a man. It also defines a generation. Those old guys came home from the most expansive conflict in all of human history desperate to build and create.
They had seen so much death and pain that all they wanted to do was make a world that was fresh, clean, and new. It was this spirit that built the United States into the most powerful and respected nation in all of human history. It remains to be seen if those of us who came of age later can prove ourselves worthy of this precious legacy.
Special thanks to www.worldwarsupply.com for the gear we used to outfit our period paratrooper.
Technical Specifications
1944-Production Remington Rand 1911A1
Caliber .45ACP
Length (in) 8.5
Barrel Length (in) 5.03
Weight (ounces) 39
Sights Fixed
Action Recoil-Operated
Mag Capacity 7
Performance Specifications
1944-Production Remington Rand 1911A1 .45ACP
Browning 230-gr FMJ/SIG SAUER V-Crown 230-gr JHP
Gun Group Size (Inches) Velocity (Feet per Second)
Browning 230-gr FMJ 1.5 870
SIG SAUER V-Crown 230-gr JHP 1.4 857
Group size is the best four of five shots measured center to center at fourteen meters from a simple rest. Velocity is the average of three shots fired across a Caldwell Ballistic Chronograph oriented ten feet from the muzzle.
What a charming phrase – To fix their minds so that they could go back. Grumpy
The 6.8 SPC cartridge was developed due to troubling reports about failures of the 5.56 NATO cartridge to incapacitate enemy soldiers. During a development project led by a soldier of the 5th Special Forces Group and a member of the Army Marksmanship Unit, the goal was to create an enhanced rifle cartridge that was compatible with the M4 carbine—AR15—with minimal changes to the weapon.
This started with the 6 mm PPC, which ironically is essentially the same cartridge as the recently released 6 mm ARC, but the project engineers necked it up to 6.5 mm. For some more irony, this is what is known today as the 6.5 Grendel. Due to the poor magazine capacity of this fatter case, it was discarded, and they went to work with the smaller diameter .30 Remington case. Ultimately what would emerge was the 6.8 (.277-caliber) SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge) which was submitted to SAAMI by Remington shortly after the turn of the century.
Since its introduction there has been an ongoing argument as to whether the 6.8 SPC is a better combat or fighting cartridge than the 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington. It would appear the verdict is still out. Though used to some limited extent by military units, the 6.8 SPC never achieved widespread adoption by the U.S. military; the 5.56 NATO is still the primary chambering for individual military weapons. Given the press and publicity of the 6.8 SPC, civilians looking for a home/self-defense carbine now question which cartridge they should trust their life to.
This started with the 6 mm PPC, which ironically is essentially the same cartridge as the recently released 6 mm ARC, but the project engineers necked it up to 6.5 mm. For some more irony, this is what is known today as the 6.5 Grendel. Due to the poor magazine capacity of this fatter case, it was discarded, and they went to work with the smaller diameter .30 Remington case. Ultimately what would emerge was the 6.8 (.277-caliber) SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge) which was submitted to SAAMI by Remington shortly after the turn of the century.
Since its introduction there has been an ongoing argument as to whether the 6.8 SPC is a better combat or fighting cartridge than the 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington. It would appear the verdict is still out. Though used to some limited extent by military units, the 6.8 SPC never achieved widespread adoption by the U.S. military; the 5.56 NATO is still the primary chambering for individual military weapons. Given the press and publicity of the 6.8 SPC, civilians looking for a home/self-defense carbine now question which cartridge they should trust their life to.
Given the application of home/self-defense, the answer is very likely—from a practical standpoint—unimportant; either cartridge should do a fine job of sorting out any problems you could reasonably expect to face in a home or self-defense situation. The answer of which cartridge is “best” for the job is really irrelevant. A more important question would be, what ammunition should be used for either in a home or self-defense setting.
The considerations here are practically endless with regard to the 5.56 NATO, which can also safely and effectively fire .223 Remington ammunition; MidwayUSA lists more than 150 loadings that will work in an MSR chambered for the 5.56 NATO. As for the 6.8 SPC, they only list 14. Not only does ammunition selection matter, availability is also something to think about. As far as centerfire rifle cartridges go, .223 Remington is one of the best-selling cartridges. Every day the world is making a lot more .223 Remington ammunition than they are 6.8 SPC.
Another advantage of the 5.56 NATO is capacity. There are 10-, 20-, 30-, and even 40-round AR-15 magazines for the .223 Remington available. Because of the larger diameter cartridge case, with the 6.8 SPC magazine capacity is about 16 percent less. Is this a big deal? Probably not, but there is nothing as bad as running out of ammunition when you really need it. If you’re considering some sort of survival situation where you have to operate on foot, 1 pound of 5.56 NATO ammo equates to 38 rounds; 1 pound of 6.8 SPC ammo equals 28 rounds. That’s a substantial difference.
Keep in mind that the military was considering the terminal effects of FMJ ammunition. Modern defensive loads for the 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington like the 55-, 62-, and 75-grain Speer Gold Dot perform substantially better. Of course, non-FMJ 6.8 SPC ammunition, like the Fusion 90- or 115-grain bonded spitzer, perform very well too.
Given similar modern projectiles, for close quarters terminal performance as it relates to self-defense, the 6.8 SPC is probably the better option. Though arguably, with proper bullet placement, the 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington should work just as well. Where the 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington bests the 6.8 SPC is when other things are considered. Other things like cost of range ammo, versatility of specialized loads, and shooting at extreme distance, specifically with a rifle that has a fast twist barrel.
If all you want is a rifle to help save your life in a situation that could reasonably be expected to happen to an average civilian, then get a 6.8 SPC and buy several cases of practice and defensive ammo. If on the other hand you want a rifle you can use to defend yourself, use to have fun on the range, use to take a carbine training class, use to shoot at long distances, and use to hunt varmints and even deer, (Yes, the .223 Remington is legal for deer hunting in more states than it is not) opt for the 5.56/.223 Remington. It is the most versatile cartridge compatible with the AR-15.
Of course, it should go without stating that given the modularity of the AR-15, you always have the option of having a different upper for each cartridge…just in case you cannot make up your mind.
The century may have been new, but the established sidearm of the time was the Single Action Colt, which had 30 years of history in the Indian Wars. The Colt came in many variations of finish, caliber and barrel length. The variation that somehow managed to capture my interest was the gun that collectors called the “Sheriff’s” or “Storekeeper’s” Model. Colt called it the ejectorless model.
In those long-ago times, Colt was willing to customize its revolvers, and several batches of SAAs materialized with no ejector rod and housing on the lower-right edge of the barrel. Most of these guns had shorter-than-usual barrels. For some reason, this simpler, cleaner mechanism appealed to more than a few shooters, although it required another tool to poke out the empties.
This interest carried over to the post-World War II re-introduction of the SAA Colt. I was one such budding handgunner in the 1970s while working as a southern California peace officer. I found Serial No. 207264 (hereinafter referred to as No. 64) in King’s, a famous southland gun emporium. Yeah. I bought the old brute.
No. 64 may have started as an entirely normal 4.75” .45 Colt with the fit, finish and case-hardening to die for, but that was in 1901. By 1979, it was a ruin—re-blued at least twice. It may have passed through many hands in 78 years, but none of the unknown number of owners would seem to have had sufficient monies to defray the cost of a bore brush and rod. After a couple of lengthy and diligent cleaning sessions, I had to accept that No. 64 was a lost cause.
Some previous owner had apparently reached the same conclusion and decided to sacrifice the gun to experimentation. He removed and discarded the ejector rod and housing, then cut the barrel back to 3 inches. Worse than that, he cut and welded the front of the frame to do away with the loop that accepts the rear edge of the ejector rod housing. The gun could not be returned to original SAA configuration. Oh well, I bought it as a Sheriff’s Model anyway—I just wanted a shooter.
Dressed in a light coat of grease and zipped into a proper gun rig, No. 64 rested easily in a big Browning safe for many years. Other SAA Colts would come and a few would go, but this one just lingered on. Then one day several years ago (and decades wiser in the custom gun field), I was looking for something else and ran across No. 64. Although the major shooting parts—barrel and cylinder—were a total loss, the frame, lockwork, butt and grips were not too bad. After all, it was an original Colt SAA with matching numbers where they were supposed to be—frame, butt and trigger guard.
Always, I had been drawn to the clean good looks of a Sheriff’s model, and that may have been part of the reason that No. 64 had not been summarily dismissed from my armory. A restoration just might be in order. I’ll admit that I was puzzled with what the frontiersman armed with one of these things used to punch out the empties. Not likely to have a pencil in his pocket, nor a section of hardwood dowel. Certainly not a BIC pen.
I needed to resolve this dilemma before attempting a resurrection of No. 64. Several European revolvers, both SA and DA/SA, have a sort of folding ejector rod that went into the central axis of the cylinder. That would seem to be the only available space on the gun. Old No. 64 lived on my desk for several months while I did make-a-living work and fooled with the gun on breaks. Then one day—with no fanfare whatsoever—an idea came to me.
A Colt Frontier Model has what is called a base pin. It is literally the axle on which the cylinder turns. Early SAAs used an angled screw to hold it into the frame, but later (and current) guns have a spring-loaded latch that holds the base pin in place. When you take the cylinder out to clean one of these legendary revolvers, you pull the base pin forward out of the frame.
In doing this, I noticed that the pin itself—a steel rod about three inches long and a quarter inch in diameter—would make a great tool for punching out brass. If you pulled it out of the frame, however, the cylinder would be loose and would fall out of the gun. It occurred to me that a machinist with lathe skills might be able to make a special base pin. I carefully worked out my idea and made what I thought was a workable drawing of the modification that would get it done.
I took the gun and the drawing to my friend and ace pistolsmith Terry Tussey of Tussey Custom, who gets the credit for making a reality of the Trython and other custom handguns. I admit that his response to my design and idea was, to say the least, deflating. He looked at the drawing for about, oh maybe 10 seconds. Then he grunted something about “won’t work—we’ll do it this way.” The next time I came by his shop, he handed me a working version of the idea.
On the finished gun, the shooter moves the hammer to the “half-cock” position and opens the loading gate. Then he presses the base pin latch on the front of the frame and pulls the base pin forward and out of the gun. The cylinder remains in place and capable of turning as normal. Our pistolero now uses the base pin as a punch to reach in the chambers and push empties out of the gun in sequence. When he needs to load up for a stroll down Allen street, he pushes the pin back in place in the gun. It works.
I will admit that the first time, we worked with a much used replica single action that I picked up at a local gun show. Terry gave this project to Steve Duell, one of the well-qualified pistolsmiths working in his shop. It came out perfectly on the recent production SAA, so we went ahead and made the modification to old No. 64.
When they did that one, I was so pleased with the result that I had to do it up right. Terry was backed up with other work and couldn’t complete a total renovation of my Sheriff’s model, so I appealed to Hamilton Bowen of Bowen Classic Arms. Bowen is well-known in the world of wheelguns and has done special projects for me on other occasions.
Bowen got No. 64 with the base pin modification we have just examined, but no other work performed. Both barrel and cylinder were in terrible shape with deep pitting. Bowen offers a special dovetailed-in front sight that replicates the ones used by Sedgely and other pre-World War II ‘smiths. He fitted one to a special barrel on No. 64.
To get a little heavier-than-normal barrel, he made a new barrel from stock. The cylinder was also new, but not the original caliber. At my request, the new cylinder was chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. I am uncommonly fond of.45 ACP revolvers—as opposed to .45 Colt—simply because of the cost of ammunition. I can almost always find cheaper .45 ACP ammo.
Bowen’s accomplishments thus far described made the gun a great new shooter, but what he did for the cosmetics made it no small triumph of the gunmaker’s art. Hamilton Bowen has developed a technique of preparing steel parts that results in a subdued luster to the final blue job. He did not case-harden the frame, but rather just blued it.
He also had to pretty well rebuild the action in order to finish it up properly. I sent the gun to Joe Perkins at Classic Single Action in Tucson for one-piece style grips. Joe selected a piece of walnut where the natural grain mirrored the classic butt curve. It is an uncommonly handsome little custom revolver.