Sweetheart grips: Both Tactical and historic
Back in the 1940s, GIs often found themselves in possession of surplus pieces of clear plastic. This soon led to the phenomena that was the clear 1911 grip and its offspring the sweetheart grip. And they never really went away.
Clear plastic Plexiglas became one of the wonder weapons of the Second World War. It was used in windows on vehicles and, due to its lightweight and malleability, began appearing on warplanes used by both sides, covering canopies, gun turrets, and aircraft viewing ports.
The thing is thousands of planes were shot down, wrecked, and otherwise left for so much scrap across every theatre of war. This left those precious clear plastic bubbles and windows up for grabs and soon enterprising soldier-craftsmen turned figured out that they could turn these into replacement grip plates for 1911-style handguns.
1911 Closeup of pistol handle w. photo of girlfriend of Lt. John Ernser, 26, leader of the US infantry engaged in attacks of German fortification positions at the Italian front
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk