The Smith & Wesson M1917 Revolver: 45 ACP’s first wheelgun
When the European continent rushed to its First World War in 1914, the United States remained neutral. By 1917, with German U-Boats sinking unarmed ships full of Americans and the Kaiser coaxing Mexico to invade the US with Imperial German arms, this neutrality ended. The problem was that though the US had a lot of people, it also had a tiny army and needed many more guns if we were going to send millions of troops over there to fight the Huns. This led the military to start a fresh conversation with the firm of Smith and Wesson about handguns.
In early 1917 Smith and Wesson, had its second Model Hand Ejector revolver, a large frame gun similar to the N-frame series of today, already in wartime production (and chambered in .455 Webley) for contracts to the British Army. The US Army’s standard pistol was the Browning-designed Colt .45ACP M1911 and upon their entrance in the Great War, they placed orders for as many 1911s as could be manufactured. However a little math revealed that there would be a shortfall between how many men they needed in the field and how many 1911 pistols could be delivered from all production sources on time. Thinking outside the box, they asked S&W if they could redesign a revolver to fire the same .45 ACP round (of which they had many) and deliver thousands of them ASAP…
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
S&W Model 1917s still serving in New Guinea in 1942…