OLD COLT: WE PROVIDE THE PUBLIC WITH AN ONLINE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE FOR OLD COLT GUNS.
This Colt M1911A1 was built and shipped in May of 1937 and sent to Springfield Armory. Out of the pistols numbered 710001-711605 Springfield Armory transferred 836 to the Navy Department and 769 were retained for Army requirements.
This particular pistol has record in the National Archives with reference to Lt. George J. Seel of the Fighting Squadron Twenty Seven of the USS "Suwannee" (CVE-27) in 1943.
The documents showing this provenance are related to a board of survey held on the loss of the pistol. As noted in the documentation the postil was reportedly lost when Lt. Seel's fighter was shot down in the Pacific on 22nd July 1943 and he was forced to parachute into the water. The pistol was subsequently recovered at some point but there is no record of this in the archives.
In a few newspaper articles from the Jax Air News there are reports of Lt. Seel's exploits including his shooting down two Japanese planes in April of 1943. He is mentioned in two issues of "All Hands" the second of which is related to his award of an air medal.
