11969Colt,
Regarding value, I'm just telling it like it was listed in the Blue Book at about $5k. My thinking is, some of you might be interested in what the value was at that time. If I had been able to buy the gun, I would not have purchased it and would have told him to pass it down to his children now that he knows the value and the rarity of the pistol.
Here is the smuggling story with a bit more information about his experiences in the B-17.
His call sign was Bird Dog. If I could give his name, you would understand the call sign. He was shot down three times. Two of those times, he made it back to England and made successful crash landings. The third time, they were over either France or Belgium. I round came through the underside of the aircraft and wounded him in the area around his crotch. He had to make an emergency landing so he looked around for a suitable field and spotted an airfield. After coming to a stop, they saw vehicles coming toward them at a high rate of speed. He told his crew to be prepared to be prisoners of war. What they didn't know is the Americans had captured the field couple of days earlier.
His crew know how much he loved his 1911 so they purchased white handles (don't recall the material) and had "Bird Dog" engraved. He wanted to take this handgun home but didn't know how to do it so he devised a plan where he would attach the gun to one leg with the rear of the handle pressed tightly against his crotch and the barrel pointing down. He then taped it with white medical tape to his leg. He said it was very uncomfortable walking and sitting on the flight back to the U.S.
At some point, they were frisked for contraband but I don't recall whether it was in England or the U.S. During the frisking, he panicked while the frisker was slowly moving up his leg so he jumped back slightly, acting as if he was embarrassed then asked the frisker to not touch him there and that's how he smuggled the gun home.
