Are Pistols Really Useless?

Well that's different. I am talking more about Tankers, TOW Gunners and AM Trackers.
"Hey Buddy... If you're going to wear that thing go to supply and get a chest and a set of shoulders."

The exception to that, of course, is Magnum PI; he can wear the sh*t out of a shoulder holster.

 

The Biannci fit me well, I'm about 6'3" and weighed about 240 all my adult life. Not a problem, plus I didn't have the time to go doing that "custom crap". I didn't have to wear one all the time or anything for comfort. I had a nice "western style" for my .357 Redhawk Ruger when I went hunting. Don't remember the name of that brand, but it was nice. I sold it along with the Ruger way back when.

 

With my M1991, I will kill the target out to 30 yards at least. Just takes practice, and learning to "double tap."

 

I had posted in another area that a gentleman I spoke with used a pistol twice in his military career to futher his military career. First time he said was when a couple Germans stopped the jeep he was driving an officer around in. He couldn't have grabbed his carbine fast enough and got his pistol into action and dispatched one while the officer got the other with his pistol. The other time he said was in Korea, where he wacked a bad guy while visiting a hole off the main road. He said he would never go into battle without a sidearm.

 

Of course for extreme pistol fantasy there is always this guy:

Shrine of the Mall Ninja » LonelyMachines

 

If I may take this pistol topic in another direction. We all know the German Luger, Walther PPK, or P-38 were highly sought after souvenirs during WWII. We also have read, heard of, or seen through photos or film, a typical scenario of a high ranking German officer, steeped in military tradition, ceremoniously offering his side arm in a jester of surrender to (hopefully) an officer of equal rank. Sometimes, but not always, this sidearm handed over to an Allied officer would be one of the three common pistols mentioned above. I am thinking of two exceptions:

1) As I have mentioned in other posts, my father's unit, the 3rd Battalion of the 13th Infantry Regiment (U.S. 8th Division) captured General der Falschirmtruppen Hermann B. Ramcke, commander of Fortress Brest on 19 September 1944. After some parley, Ramcke handed the 8th Division XO Brig. Gen. Charles D. W. Canham, what was reported by the Press as a Luger. Canham, immediately turned without looking and handed the pistol to the nearest GI. In the early 1990s, I met and spoke with that former GI. I was surprised to discover that the pistol was not a Luger, but, a .38 caliber revolver. My friend, now deceased, could not recall the make or model, but said the weapon had a rotating clasp on the bottom of the pistol grip to attach a lanyard chord (possibly either a British Webly Mk IV or Enfield Mk I ...or... Russian Nagant model 1895, both armies that Ramcke had fought against).

2) In a History Channel program awhile back about Hermann Goering's capture, and newsreel film (perhaps staged,) shows Goering also surrendering a revolver. An internet search revealed that this particular weapon was a Smith & Wesson as shown in this photo.

Google Image Result for http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/kwill1911/GoeringMP.jpg

My question is, why would these certain German officers not surrender a German manufactured Luger, PPK, or P-38? Surely these officers carried one of these as their sidearm. There could be a number of different reasons, but I tend to think it was a show of arrogance. In Ramcke's case, perhaps he thought: I will not surrender a superiorly made German weapon, but rather an antiquated or obsolete revolver. Goering, who had time before he officially surrendered perhaps though he would get a rise out of the American officer by handing him an American made Smith & Wesson. What are your thoughts? Has anyone else noticed examples where a German officer surrendered a sidearm manufactured in another country?

Greg C.

 

That is definitely a good point. I agree with it.
Many have said this and I think it applies to the pistol as well:
It's better to have one and not need it than need it and don't have one.
Personally, I don't think a pistol is useless.

 

I would say that the pistol is a valuable addition to any soldier. if for any reason your main ammunition runs out then the need for a secondary is important, and it is also faster to draw a loaded pistol then reload another if the need arises. If there is anything the military can do to save lives, even it is something simple like a pistol, it should be taken to save lives.

 

Considering that contingencies of late have been in urban areas, a pistol is not so useless.

 

The only useless pistol is the one you don't have with you

 

I think i might have an answer for this. In Goerring's case, i think it's a good guess that he handed over a revolver because he probably preferred to own and carry that particular handgun. Since as second in the Nazi hierarchy only to Hitler, he certainly could have obtained any pistol he wanted, very easily.

In the other cases of Germans handing over non-standard sidearms, it might be explained simply by weapons shortages. The Germans manufactured over 11 million small arms in world war 2, and also used weapons manufactured in the conquered countries (the Browning high power pistol, for example, was unique in having been used by both sides during the war.)
But even with all the weapons being manufactured, the Germans always had a shortage of small arms. The Germans did standardize to the extent of insisting that all frontline combat units be equipped with issue infantry weapons (Kar 98, mg 34 and 42, mp 38/40 submachine gun, luger and p38 sidearms.) So every standard issue weapon went straight to units at the front, and everyone behind it made do with whatever else was left.
Late in the war, German wehrmacht support personnel, even officers, generally had to make do with whatever weapon was issued, stolen, or captured from the enemy i.e. any weapon the Germans could get their hands on.

Sometimes enemy weapons were even preferred: everyone has seen photos of German soldiers on the Eastern front armed with the Russian PPsh subgun, and i have even seen photos of German troops during the Battle of the Bulge armed with M1 carbines!

 

I have a possible answer to Fat Herman carrying an S&W .38. As odd as it may seem, before the Nazis came to power, Henry Ford Sr. had shipped hundreds of S&Ws to Hitler and his group since they couldn't get "handguns" by legal purchasing means.

Perhaps Goering had kept one of those as a symbol of his long-time connection with the Party, and not for its expert manufacture (which was excellent), but for its symbolism.

 

Source?

 

FORD: The Men and the Machine; by Robert Lacey.