Category: All About Guns
Elizabeth McHutcheson was a hearty woman of Scottish descent cursed with a terminal case of wanderlust. She married a ship’s captain named Francis Sinclair and eventually produced six children. Elizabeth moved her family to New Zealand and established a farm. However, her husband and eldest son were later lost at sea along with most of the family’s possessions.
Down but not out, Elizabeth relocated to Canada and then Hawaii with the remains of her family. Once settled in she bought the Hawaiian island of Ni’ihau for $10,000. Ten grand was an astronomical sum in 1864, but it turned out to be a fairly prescient investment.
Ni’ihau is the furthest West and second smallest of the primary Hawaiian Islands. Ownership of the island passed down through the family until 1941 when Elizabeth’s great-grandson Aylmer Robinson maintained possession. Aylmer was a Harvard graduate who spoke fluent Hawaiian. He was a benevolent landlord who lived on nearby Kaua’i. His island was accessible by permission only which was seldom granted. Robinson made weekly visits by boat to check on the native islanders who held him in high esteem.
In 1941 one hundred thirty-six native islanders called Ni’ihau home. Among them were three individuals with Japanese ancestry. Aylmer Robinson administered his idyllic little kingdom free from government interference.
In the buildup to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese naval planners mistakenly assessed Ni’ihau as uninhabited. As a result, they briefed their aviators to divert to Ni’ihau in the event of battle damage preventing return to the carriers. The plan was for downed aircrew to survive on the island until they could be retrieved via submarine.
The Plot Thickens
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Airman First Class Shigenori Nishikaichi launched his A6M2 Zero fighter B11-120 from the carrier Hiryu as part of the second wave. Unlike the first attack that achieved complete tactical and strategic surprise, the second element flew into a hornet’s nest. American fighter resistance was negligible, but the warships anchored at Pearl bristled with antiaircraft guns. .50-caliber, 20mm, 40mm, and 5-inch antiaircraft weapons filled the sky with steel.
Nishikaichi’s Zero was badly damaged during a strafing run on Wheeler Field and limped away trailing smoke. Realizing that there was no way his nimble Zero was going to make it home, Nishikaichi diverted for Ni’ihau. Crash-landing his crippled fighter in a field near a local named Hawila Kaleohano, Nishikaichi was briefly dazed but otherwise unhurt.
The Chemical Formula for Awkward
The arrival of Nishikaichi’s Zero was the biggest event on Ni’ihau in collective memory, and the islanders all came out to gawk. They knew that the relationship between the United States and the Empire of Japan was strained. However, the Hawaiians are a naturally friendly people. Hawila Kaleohano relieved the young aviator of his handgun and personal documents, and the rest of the islanders threw the lad a party.
Only the three islanders with a Japanese nexus spoke Japanese, and the rest of the Ni’ihau inhabitants were unable to communicate with their new guest. For ease of explanation we will refer to these three individuals by their first names—Ishimatsu, Yoshio, and Irene. However, the Japanese pilot was becoming ever more agitated about the loss of his maps, weapon, and mission directives.
The island’s residents caught a report of the attack on a battery-powered radio and confronted the Japanese pilot. Their intent was to send him back with Mr. Robinson when he arrived on his next scheduled visit. Their guest now effectively became their prisoner.
Aylmer Robinson failed to arrive on his appointed day, and this unsettled the islanders. Robinson was typically quite punctual. However, the military had banned boat traffic, so Ni’ihau was effectively isolated.
Petty Officer Nishikaichi was remanded to the home of Yoshio and Irene, two of the islanders with Japanese connections, to be overseen by four volunteer guards. Unbeknownst to the rest of the island’s inhabitants, Yoshio and his wife were re-evaluating their loyalties. All the while the pilot’s classified documents remained in the possession of Hawila Kaleohano, the man who had originally encountered the pilot.
A Cold War Goes Hot
These people were not soldiers, and three of the four guards eventually wandered off. Seeing their opportunity Irene turned her phonograph up to cover the sounds of the ensuing struggle, while her husband and the pilot attacked the remaining guard. In short order the two had the man secured in a warehouse and had retrieved Nishikaichi’s pistol as well as a shotgun.
The two men then proceeded to Kaleohano’s home in search of the attack plans. They arrived during the man’s quality time, so he was serendipitously hidden unseen in his outhouse. When the moment was right Kaleohano fled the privy and ran for his life, shotgun blasts chasing him down the trail. Thusly alerted the islanders retreated to caves, thickets, and distant beaches, unable to believe that these people with whom they had shared the island were now actively firing upon their friend and neighbor.
The pilot and his compatriot then stripped a 7.7mm machinegun and ammo from the plane, unsuccessfully attempted to use the radio to contact the Japanese fleet, and set the Zero alight. They then went to Kaleohano’s home and burned it to the ground in a further effort to destroy Nishikaichi’s classified documents.
It Gets Worse…
Kaleohano, his home conflagrated, kept the Japanese military documents in his possession and took to a boat to row to the nearest nearby island. Not realizing he was gone, Nishikaichi and Toshio press-ganged a local couple named Ben Kanahale and his wife Ella into the hunt for Kaleohano. The pair took Ella hostage to motivate her husband to stay on task.
Ben wasted a little time pretended to search and returned to check on his wife. When Nishikaichi realized he was being deceived he pulled his pistol and threatened to kill everyone in the village. At this provocation Ben Kanahale went full Chuck Norris on the man.
The Gun
For reasons you will find out momentarily, the exact model of the handgun has been lost to history. However, the three most likely candidates are the 8mm Type 14 or Type 94 autoloaders or the Type 26 revolver. Balance of probability suggests that at the beginning of the war in the hands of an elite Japanese Naval Aviator his handgun was likely a Type 14 Nambu.
The Type 14 is a recoil-operated, locked-breech, semiautomatic handgun whose original mechanism dates back to the late 19th century. LTG Kijiro Nambu designed the weapon along with an array of other Japanese military arms. The locked-breech mechanism favors and was likely inspired by that of the Glisenti Model 1910.
The Type 14 debuted in 1925 and fires the relatively anemic bottlenecked 8x22mm round common to all Japanese wartime autoloading handguns. Considerably less powerful than the 7.62x25mm, 9mm Parabellum, and .45ACP rounds used by other combatant nations, the 8mm Nambu was marginal at best. The Type 14 fed from an 8-round box magazine, sported a 4.6-inch barrel and weighed about 2 pounds. About 400,000 copies were produced.
Japanese officers were expected to buy their own handguns, and the Type 14 was a popular souvenir of combat in the Pacific. As the war progressed and B29 attacks strangled the home islands the quality of these weapons declined precipitously. Bill Ruger bought a Type 14 from a returning Marine in 1945 and used it as a basis for his Ruger Standard pistol that eventually morphed into the Mk I, II, III, and IV .22 handguns so common today.
The Climax
Seeing an opportunity, Ben Kanahele and his wife Ella jumped the distracted Japanese pilot and his turncoat buddy. Ella grabbed his gun arm, but Yoshio Hamada peeled her off. Nishikaichi then shot Ben three times, striking him in the upper leg, groin, and abdomen. This turned out to be a grave mistake.
Kanahele was a sheep farmer and a powerful man. Despite his grievous injuries he took hold of the Japanese pilot, lifted him bodily, and threw him headlong into a stone wall. Ben and Ella then fell upon the dazed Japanese aviator with a vengeance. Ella smashed his head with a rock, and Ben cut the man’s throat with his hunting knife. Overcome by events, Nishikaichi’s ally Yoshio shot himself in the head with the shotgun.
Ella Kanahele snatched up the shotgun and pistol and ran for help. Along the way she inadvertently dropped the weapons. The pistol was never recovered, but the shotgun washed up in a flood some five years later.
Yoshio’s widow spent the next 31 months in prison and was released in June of 1944 despite never being formally charged with a crime. Ben Kanahele was evacuated to a nearby island with a hospital and ultimately recovered, being awarded the Medal for Merit and Purple Heart for killing the Japanese pilot in close combat. The remains of Nishikaichi’s Zero are on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor today.
If you want to experience a WW2 handgun without paying antique prices, the Walther P1 is a direct descendant of the iconic Nazi P38 and a lot cheaper to own. The Walther P1 is the aluminum-framed copy of the WWII Walther P38 pistol and has its own history. For 25 years these pistols served with the Bundeswehr and West German police. During the 1990s the Germans began phasing out the P1, fielding the P8 (a military version of the H&K USP), finally retiring the weapon altogether in 2004. The P1 is now readily available on the civilian market.
Everyone who has seen a WW2 movie thinks the Nazis all carried a Luger P08. While some of them did, their main sidearm was the P38. Lugers fought in the Great War and were the standard-issue sidearm for the German military from their adoption in 1909 until 1938. They were an innovative design in their day and brought us the standard 9×19 round (also called 9mm Luger).
Handguns are support weapons and in a wartime economy, cheap and effective beats pretty every time. Experience in the Great War had shown the Lugar to be complicated and expensive to manufacture. The toggle operating system did not tolerate hostile conditions well so Walther developed a more reliable and less expensive option, the Pistole 38 or P38.
The P38 is a full-size service pistol chambered with the standard 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge firing from an 8-round magazine. One of the first double-action handguns, it allowed Soldiers to safely carry the P38 with a round chambered and the hammer down, needing only to draw and squeeze the long double-action trigger pull to fire (without manipulating a manual safety).
Military production began in 1939 with Walther. The demand for the P38 was so high, that Mauser and Spreewerk also received contracts producing over one million P38s during the war. P38s went on to see combat in every theater of war and field use in harsh conditions proved it to be a magnificent design. The only reason the Germans issued so many other handguns was that there were never enough P38s available.
As WW2 ended, the Cold War began and the P38 received a new lease on life. The new German army (Bundeswehr) wanted the gun they knew, Walther updated the design, replacing the steel frame with a lightweight aluminum alloy unit (during the war, aluminum was prioritized to the Luftwaffe for aircraft). In 1955, the initial production run of new pistols was marked “P38”, The design was de-Nazified and adopted in 1957 as the Pistole 1. This model served not only the various branches of the Bundeswehr but also the Austrian Army, for decades.
The original Walther factory was in the Soviet occupation zone. What was not stolen was destroyed by the Russians. The Manurhin company in France made the P1 gun for several years under contract until Walther built a new factory in Ulm/Donau. Walther built the P1 for the West German military and police for more than 25 years. They are marked ‘P-1’ and have a four-digit production date on their frame. The date is simple to figure out, my gun is marked 04/79, it was made in April of 1979.
P1 and the P38
The P1 is different than the P38. The design is almost exactly the same, but it isn’t the same gun. The P1 frame is aluminum, the P38 is steel-framed. For all intents and purposes, both guns feel and shoot the same. In 1975, the aluminum frame was reinforced with a hex bolt above the trigger guard, and a thicker, stronger slide was added.
I was cruising my local gun store and saw a camo holster, a German flecktarn holster. Then I saw the gun. A very good condition P1 with all the family charm of its WW2 relatives. For less than a used Glock, I got to find out why the Germans kept this gun for so many years. I was not disappointed and I learned a great deal about where modern handgun features originated. (Spoiler Alert: Everybody but Browning stole something from this gun. Looking at you Beretta, SIG and Glock.)
The P1 and the P38 are true double-action / single-action guns. It was designed to be carried with the chamber loaded and the hammer de-cocked using the lever. With the safety off, a double-action pull of the trigger will cock and then fire the gun.
Walther P1 Specifications
- Method of Operation: Short recoil
- Caliber: 9x19mm Parabellum
- Action: Double Action / Single Action
- Safety: Decocker, Manual Safety, Firing Pin Block Drop Safety
- Trigger Pull: Single Action 5.5 lbs / Double Action 9.5 lbs
- Sights: Fixed Front Post with White Dot and U-Notch Rear
- Overall Length: 8.5″
- Overall Width: 1.5″
- Weight: 27 ounces
- Barrel: 4.9 inches, 6 groove 1-10 Right Hand twist
- Feed: 8-round single-stack detachable magazine
The P1 has a manual safety / de-cocking lever, a last round slide lock mechanism, and a take-down lever, all on the left side of the pistol. The slide locks back after the last round was fired, a tab in the magazine pushes up on the slide lock. The only feature not familiar to modern shooters is the magazine release on the bottom rear of the magazine well.
This release is a common feature on older European handguns. In Europe, magazines are scarce and human life is cheap. Nobody cared about rapid reloads. You got two magazines with your handgun and they were serialized. You were forced to retain the magazine by design.
There’s a prominent loaded-chamber indicator just above the hammer which protrudes to indicate the pistol’s condition. A glance or touch will reveal the weapon’s status. This little part could easily get hung up on something and is a bit of complication which could have been avoided.
Though based on a WW2 design, the P1 is a contemporary of the SIG P226 and the Beretta 92 (M-9). While the single stack 8-round magazine can’t compete with the double stack super nines, I find the ergonomics superior to the M-9 I was issued. The P1 sights and trigger are better and I can shoot it faster and better than the M-9.
The Beretta grip is fat and the trigger pull is long and heavy. The ambidextrous safety/de-cocker on the M-9 is very easy to activate when manipulating the slide. This provides a surprise dead gun after a re-load or malfunction. It is always a bad surprise. The P1 weighs in at 27 ounces, (unloaded) versus 33.9 for the M-9. The only advantages of the M-9 are the magazine release and a 15 round magazine.
Shooting
The P1 feels good. The thumb rest and lanyard ring on the left grip are designed for righties. The slide stop and decocker/safety are positioned for right-handed manipulation. How did the Germans accommodate left-handers? They forbid left-handed shooting. Problem solved.
This is not a show stopper for the lefties. There are no left-handed holsters, but the controls can be manipulated left-handed or with the support hand. The magazine release is ambidextrous.
The P1 is made for a flap holster and has a prominent front sight, sharp edges on the slide, and an awkward loaded chamber indicator. The is not your new EDC or concealed carry gun. In spite of a single stack mag, the slide and grips are 1 1/4″ thick. The de-cocker and slide release also stick out with sharp angles that can snag.
Using my Bundeswehr surplus flectarn camouflage pattern flap holster I took my P1 to the range over a couple of months. The operation is just like the SIG and Beretta except for the magazine release. The de-cocker must be manipulated before holstering. Reloads are just the same as more modern guns.
The 8+1 capacity was a limitation but not that big a deal. Trying to draw from the flap and reload from the holster was slow, but they were designed to protect, not to gunfight. It was expected that your gun would be in your hand if you needed it.
I used several different loads, ranging in bullet weight from 115 to 147 grains, including the dreaded +P loads. I have heard that you shouldn’t use +P in an aluminum frame. The P1 was designed to shoot hot NATO spec submachinegun ammo. It will handle +P, but you should expect accelerated wear. The P1 fed everything I tried with grace and a complete lack of malfunctions. The dual recoil springs are old but they have plenty of flex left in them.
The only thing odd about shooting the P1 is the magazine well magazine release. That said, It was not that hard to hit the release and pull the magazine out. It is a little slower, but works just fine with a little practice. In Europe, life is cheap and magazines are scarce. The magazines were seen as components of the weapon to be kept for life.
The dot front and strip rear sights are as good as any service pistol sights I have ever seen. The double-action pull is as good as a SIG and better than Beretta. The single-action pull and reset are better than a Glock. Felt recoil is very manageable with little flip. The weight is all in the back of the gun. Brass ejects in various directions occasionally hitting you in the head, but it always ejects.
I found the P1 shot very well for speed and accuracy from 7 yards to 50 yards. I am sure it would go farther but my range discourages shooting across the parking lot. I was unexpectedly impressed by the trigger. Light and smooth with a short re-set.
Fun Fact: the Walther P1 (imported by P.W. Arms) is on California’s roster of state-approved handguns.
After a few hundred rounds, I found that I really liked the P1. In an open carry environment, I would pick it over the Beretta every time. I see the P1 in gun stores all the time and they are readily available online. The price of P38s has risen dramatically as collectors seek them out, with prices running around a thousand dollars. The P1 is a product improved P38 for less than half the price. Since they were manufactured as late as1980s and were not taken as war trophies after years of combat use, most P1s are in great condition.
The P1 is a fun and affordable piece of history. If you have ever thought about owning one, now is the time. In a few years, they will be collectible and un-affordable. Your kids and grandkids will thank you.
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