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While widely used for hundreds of years, the unique aspects of World War One resulted in a renewed emphasis handguns. Simply put, a rifle with a bayonet attached was just too unwieldy in the confines of a trench.

M1911 .45-caliber Pistol: In the early 1890s, the US military abandoned the famous M1873 Singe Action Army revolver in favor of a double-action revolver that was chambered for the much lighter .38-caliber “Long Colt” round. In the fighting in the Philippines, the .38 to be a miserable failure and the US Army searched for a more effective cartridge. Research confirmed that a cartridge of less than .44-caliber could not be counted on as a reliable “man stopper”. The various tests to determine the best self-loading military pistol design culminated with the adoption of the Colt “U.S. Pistol, Caliber. 45, Model of 1911” chambered for the new .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge. The .45 ACP was a rimless round and featured a heavy 230 grain bullet moving at 830fps. The M1911 was designed by legendary firearms designer John M. Browning. It was recoil-operated and had a detachable box magazine holding 7-rounds. The weapon weighed 2.47 pounds and had a barrel length of 5-inches and an overall length of 8.62-inches. The M1911 was issued with either the M1912 Holster, which was a full-flap design with a swivel attachment with wire hooks. A modified version of this holster, the M1916, deleted the swivel. Also issued was a canvas-web magazine pouch that held two spare magazines, unlike later issue, this pouch had two “lift-the-dot” fasteners. The M1911 was issued to officers and NCOs of the AEF as well as machine gunners, automatic riflemen and variety of combat and non-combat personnel. In addition to the 75,000 that were available prior to the war, 643, 755 were built during WWI. Alterations to the trigger, main spring housing, receiver and sights resulted in the M1911A1. This pistol remained in service until the mid-1980s, the last of the World War One weapons to do so.

The M1892-M1905 Revolver: Production of the M1911 never met the need for pistols, the shortage was so great the 25,000 of the M1895-M1902 revolvers were taken out of storage and issued to non-combatant units, both stateside and overseas. This pistol was issued with its original leather holster with a partial cover flap and a belt loop on the back. The holster was of the cavalry-influenced “butt forward” configuration. The pistol weighed in at 2 pounds, 2 ounces and had a 6-inch barrel and an overall length of 11.5-inches. All together, some 40,00 of the M1892, M1894, M1901, M1903 and M1905 revolvers saw service.

The M1917 Smith & Wesson and M1917 Colt Revolvers: As mentioned earlier, the shortage of M1911 pistols led the Army to acquire other pistols for issue to the troops. Both Smith & Wesson and Colt were approached to produce a double-action revolver, chambered for the .45ACP cartridge. Since the .45ACP cartridge is rimless, this meant that the cylinder extractors would not be able to eject the empty casings. An ingenious “half-moon” shaped sheet metal loader allowed the rimless cartridges to be easily ejected and reloaded. Each clip held three .45ACP rounds. Smith & Wesson used the frame of its New Century revolver as the basis for their version. It weighed 2 ¼-pounds and had a 5.5-inch long barrel and an overall length of 10 ¼-inches. 166,732 were produced during the war. Colt used the frame of its New Service revolver for the basis of its version. It weighed 2.5 pounds, had a barrel length of 5.5-inches and an overall length of 10.8 inches. A total of 151,700 Colts were produced. Both revolvers were issued with a leather holster with a partial cover flap and a wide belt loop that allowed the pistol to be carried butt-forward. A canvas pouch that held three sets of half-moon clips was also issued.

Whether armed with the M1911 pistol or the M1917 revolver, the Doughboy carried a larger percentage of handguns into combat than the troops of any other nation. It has been estimated that as much as 60% of all combat troops were armed with a handgun, in addition to their rifle and bayonet. A infantry battalion TO&E for 1918 lists 322 pistols to be issued and a division was allotted 11,193 pistols.