peashooter85:The Colt M1911 World War I British Service,During World War I Britain wasn’t real
peashooter85:The Colt M1911 World War I British Service,During World War I Britain wasn’t really big into the whole semi automatic pistol thing, instead relaying upon their tried and true big bore Webley revolvers to be the standard sidearm of the British Army. However the British did issue a limited number of semi automatic pistols to the Royal Navy, Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Horse Artillery. The British had their own native design, the Webley & Scott self loading pistol, however they chose to supplement issue with a contract of American production Colt M1911 pistols.The British Service Colt 1911 was special in that it was chambered for the .455 auto cartridge, a semi rimmed version of the .455 Webley revolver cartridge created to feed through an automatic pistol. The .45 ACP was originally invented as a response to the .455 Webley, thus the .45 ACP was very similar to the .455 Auto and it wasn’t difficult for Colt to produce them in the new chambering. 11,000 were produced and issued to the Royal Navy, Royal Flying Corps, and Royal Horse Artillery. While it was never issued to regular infantry in the British Army, officers had the choice of purchasing their own sidearms and some purchased a 1911. The example pictured above (from Little John’s Auction Service) was one such private purchase, produced in 1918 and specially inscribed to Lt. J. W. Crewdson of the 20th Manchester Battalion. -- source link