My favorite July 4 pistol

[Scott Gahimer]

My favorite July 4 pistol

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I acquired this pistol years ago with (3) others from a former dealer/collector in Texas. I bought the gun without any story. It is a 1943 Remington Rand pistol serial number 976207. It is Du-Lite blue and has the 2nd style slide logo. I bought the pistol because it was all original and so nice...that's all. The other guns were/are nice, too.

left view
http://i42.tinypic.com/r2jfv4.jpg


right view
http://i39.tinypic.com/25a57wm.jpg


Later I checked the SRS web site database that used to be online and saw I had a direct hit on the serial number showing the pistol 4 July 1944 on the U.S.Cabot CVL28. So I contacted Charlie Pate at SRS and sent money for the documents on that gun and some others I had direct hits on.

I received letters and documents from the National Archives on all the pistols from SRS. Here is the copy of the document I received on this pistol. It is dated 31 July 1944 and is a loss report for the pistol. The document shows this pistol, 976207, as being lost in a plane that crashed at sea during aerial combat with the Japanese on 4 July 1944.

Top part of the document. The pistol is listed as a Colt, but all pistols were listed that way. The serial number confirms the document is for this pistol, because Colt never had a pistol with the serial number 976207.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2iifokz.jpg


Bottom part of the document
http://i44.tinypic.com/os7j9z.jpg


Obviously the pistol was not lost at sea, or was at least recovered immediately. So I assumed the record in the National Archives was baloney...that someone had cooked up a story to steal a pistol. However, I bought the gun, not the story...and I had a beautiful pistol that had been asigned to the USS Cabot CVL28 on 4 July 1944.

From there I started researching the USS Cabot to find out all I could about her. I found all kinds of information online about a fast carrier few had ever heard of...but that had an impressive combat history in the Pacific during WWII. I found the ship had been awarded (9) Battle Stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. I found she had been in every 1944 and 1945 battle in the Pacific Theatre of operations. She had been in service, without interruption, longer than any other ship, save one. She had been hit hit twice in kamikaze attacks and still stayed in the fight without returning to port for repairs. The first air strikes on Tokyo were launched from her decks, with war correspondent Ernie Pyle aboard. He had specifically requested to be on the Cabot to cover the story because of her battle history. Ernie Pyle loved and respected the men who served on the USS Cabot. You can Google his story about her and find out why..."The Iron Woman" by Ernie Pyle.

Ernie Pyle on the USS Cabot
http://i43.tinypic.com/ilhytf.jpg


While researching the ship I ran across an online verson of a 1986 book entitled The History of the USS Cabot CVL28, by J. Ed Hudson The History of the USS Cabot - CVL-28 Hudson had been an officer assigned to the Cabot during WWII and he wrote the book to preserve the ship's history for the families of the crew members. That book is filled with detailed information from the ship's log, and proved to be the key to unlock the door to this pistol's history.

On 4 July 1944, Fighter Squadron 31 was assigned to the USS Cabot and flew combat missions at Iwo Jima. This was the toughest aerial combat in the Paciifc up to that time.

On that day, four (4) VF31 fighters were shot down and destroyed. Three (3) VF31 pilots were killed in action. One pilot managed to limp his Hellcat back and bailed out, to be immediately recovered by one of our destroyers in the task force. That pilot was Lt.. (jg) R.C. (Bob) Wilson, a VF31 Ace credited with sever (7) aerial combat victories.

VF31 was known as the Meat Axe Squadron. They destroyed enemy planes at a rate of more than 10:1 per man, making VF31 the squadron with the highest kill ratio per pilot in U.S. Navy history to date.

The "Meat Axe" Squadron Insignia
http://i41.tinypic.com/11u7q4z.gif



Lt. (jg) Bob Wilson
http://i41.tinypic.com/30nhqa1.jpg


VF31 pilots
http://i43.tinypic.com/hx0v3m.jpg


In the online book The History of the USS Cabot, in the Table of Contents, there is a list of Casualties for the USS Cabot. If you go to that list and scroll down to 4 July 1944, listed there are the three (3) VF31 pilots killed in action at Iwo Jima on that date. They were:
Lt. (jg) Loomis
Lt. (jg) Elezian
Lt. (jg) Hancock

The 4th plane shot down and lost at sea from VF31 and the USS Cabot on 4 July 1944 was Lt. (jg) Bob Wilson's Hellcat. In Chapter 5, on pp. 41-42 of the online book The History of the USS Cabot CVL28 by Hudson, we read the following U.S. military press release detailing the action, with Wilson's own words:

Lt. (jg) R. C. WILSON
Versatility of the Navy's Hellcat fighter plane
was demonstrated when Lt. (jg) Robert C.
WILSON of Los Angeles, left two Japanese
ships wrecked on a 700-mile round trip attack
over the Philippines on 24 Sept.
WILSON, a member of the Navy's "Meat
Axe Squadron", Fighting 31 with a bomb on
his plane, began attacking the anchorage, diving
in for a low-level strafing of a gunboat. Her
guns silenced by the attack, the gunboat started
to burn and was beached on a reef.
WILSON then made a masthead bombing of
a large cargo ship, scored a direct hit and
started large fires. He made a second strafing
run on both ships and left them useless.
Then on 21 Sept., WILSON brought his score
of planes destroyed in aerial combat to six by
shooting down a Zero after a successful bombing
run on planes parked at Clark Field near Manila.
WILSON, who holds the Distinguished Flying
Cross, the Air Medal and a Gold Star in lieu
of a second Air Medal, became eligible for the

~ 42 ~

"Caterpillar Club" when he had to parachute
to safety after his plane was hit on a 4 July
attack against the Bonin Islands.
"In that predawn attack, we ran into some of
the best pilots the Japs ever put up against us,"
WILSON said. "Until our Hellcats thinned
them out, the Zeros outnumbered us and had
the altitude advantage. During the fight, I
engaged seven Zeros, damaged two and helped
destroy another. But one of them finally got on
my tail down close to the deck and got in plenty
of good shots. My plane was badly damaged,
and I was too low to bail out.
"All I could do was sit and wait for the Jap to
finish me off, but in the nick of time, two
planes from my squadron came down and
knocked off the Zero.
"By some very strenuous operation, I managed
to get the flying junk heap back to the Task
Force where I bailed out and was immediately
picked up by one of our destroyers. I learned
later that my squadron commander, Lt. Cmdr.
D. J. WALLACE Jr. and Lt. James T. ANDERSON,
were the pilots that drove the
Zero away. Lt. ANDERSON shot him down
shortly afterwards," WILSON said.
During his nine months of combat duty in the
Pacific, WILSON participated in more than 30
bombing, strafing and photo missions over
enemy bases and shipping. These included all
major fleet actions from the Marshall Island
campaign through the Philippines raids in
September.
WILSON was one of a four-plane Hellcat
division sent out to intercept a flight of nine
Japanese dive bombers which were attacking his
Task Force last March during the first Palau
operations. In a fight of a few seconds, he shot
down three planes as the other Hellcats downed
the rest.
As photographic officer of his squadron,
WILSON made low-level photo runs over many
enemy-held islands and obtained pictures that
were valuable in future strikes and landing
operations.
Said Wilson, "The toughest one was over,
Truk last April. I had to go down in extremely
bad weather conditions in the most intense anti-
aircraft fire we ever encountered."
Two days in succession, during the June
operations against the Marianas, WILSON
initiated attacks against twin-engine bombers
scouting his Task Force. WILSON engaged one
of them alone, and after several attacks, the
large bomber flamed and crashed into the
ocean. He led other Hellcats in an attack on
other bomber, damaging it and helping destroy
it. In his first combat mission over the
Marshalls last January, WILSON shot down a Zero
in a dogfight.
Wilson said of the enemy aviators, "I have a
great deal of respect for their skill; however,
they seem to lack the aggressive and cooperative
spirit of our pilots. For that reason, more than
anything else, I believe we will continue to
knock them down at a ratio of five to one or
better."

Bob Wilson returned safely to the United States and became an airline pilot. I have communicated with his family in CA. Bob was found shot to death in his home back in the late 1960's.

May he and the many other deceased men and women who have served to defend this great nation rest in peace as we celebrate our freedom that they have provided for us.

The fireworks are symbolic. Freedom isn't free.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Jeremy69]

What is the "SRS website"? I did a quick search and got a bunch of irrelevant hits, I assume it is some kind of Gov't database. I am a little new to this and it sounds like an interesting resource... Thanks

[gunner]

Really nice pistol with a great story and hat off for a good research.

Regards

Gunner

[Scott Gahimer]

The first air strikes on Tokyo were launched from her decks, with war correspondent Ernie Pyle aboard. He had specifically requested to be on the Cabot to cover the story because of her battle history. Ernie Pyle loved and respected the men who served on the U.S.Cabot. You can Google his story about her and find out why..."The Iron Woman" by Ernie Pyle.

Correction: Ernie Pyle was aboard the USS Cabot for the first all-out carrier assualt on the Jananese homeland and had specifically requested a small carrier to report from, based on this information provided at Iron Woman Foundation :

"All over the ship the scuttlebutt was that something big was up. Famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle had come aboard the U.S.S. Cabot CVL-28 at Ulithi, they had then weighed anchor and for several days steamed north into colder Pacific waters with task force 58, all the while making preparations for a major strike. Finally, on the day the operation orders were to be opened, a young officer asked Pyle if he knew what was up. Pyle knew but wasn't talking, so he asked the young man for his Zippo lighter. He scratched on the bottom of the lighter, gave it back to the officer and said, "Stick this in your pocket, and promise not to look at it until the orders are opened." Later, when it was announced that the operation orders were opened, the young officer took the Zippo from his pocket. Scratched on the bottom was one word: "Tokyo" The first all-out carrier assault on Japanese homeland was to begin and Pyle had asked to see it, so he had been assigned to the Iron Woman."

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Jeremy,

Unfortunately the free SRS web site no longer exists as such. It was a partial list of serial numbers and disposition of weapons. It's a pay service of some type now but I'm not familiar with how it works.

What is the "SRS website"? I did a quick search and got a bunch of irrelevant hits, I assume it is some kind of Gov't database. I am a little new to this and it sounds like an interesting resource... Thanks

[Bob Womack]

Ahh, the "golden helicopter" syndrome. Anytime a chopper was lost and couldn't be found in Vietnam, word spread and it took weeks for the supply sergeants all over Vietnam to come up with the list of items that were aboard. Usually, the payload listed at final assay for a lost chopper was many times heavier than the payload capacity of any chopper! The list was made up of everything that had vanished from any in-country supply sergeant's care.

I understand it was a tactic learned from WWII supply sergeants...

Bob

[enbloc8]

USS Cabot Museum tells the sad story of how that noble warship came close to being saved ten years ago...but wasn't.