Best Use of M1911 in Combat?

Well the famous MOH winner Sgt. York is surely near the top...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_C._York

"During the assault, six German soldiers in a trench near York charged him with fixed bayonets. York had fired all the rounds in his M1917 Enfield rifle, but drew his .45 Colt automatic pistol and shot all six soldiers before they could reach him... By the end of the engagement, York and his seven men marched 132 German prisoners back to the American lines."
 
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Thanks for sharing Bart. I love reading these stories. I believe it was Newsweek (perhaps another periodical) that frequently published an issue of MOH recipients. I'll have to see if I can find it. It had 25 or so articles on heros and their accounts. A great read. While I was at Pendleton 1st marines promoted a lt col to regimental commander. He was a recipient of the MOH and the story was (as most are) truly remarkable. Abridged version... wounded in viet nam he carried a wounded superior officer to safety, along the way he engaged in hand to hand combat with 2 or 3 enemy soldiers and killed them. Not doing it justice.

VARGAS, M. SANDO, JR
http://www.history.army.mil/moh/vietnam-m-z.html
The write up on base was much more detailed.
 
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I had, at one time, a book containing the Medal of Honor winners award write-ups ..... each war had it's own chapter, and they were listed chronologically.....

.....now I have to find that ......
 
I always thought the parachuting pilot who managed to down a Japanese fighter with his 1911A1 was impressive.

You can find this story on the Web, I just took a quick look, and noted many comments from people who don't believe it did happen, and some who don't believe it could happen.

I think it did happen, even though it seems like a million to one shot, these things can, and do happen. People do win the lottery, sometimes, after all.

One of the reasons I think it did happen was that I actually read about it in a real book, written by a "real" historian, some years before Al Gore (or anybody else) invented the Internet!
 
44AMP, having see some pretty wild stuff in my limited experience ..... I'm positive there has been even wilder stuff that happened than was recorded in any book ..... and was lost to history simply because all the witnesses were subsequently killed in action. When literally millions of people are involved in protracted, desperate combat such as that seen on the Eastern Front in WW II (or many of the other fronts, for that matter!) it seems to me to be a ..... near statistical certainty that really unbelievable, incredible things did in fact happen, and quite often.
 
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