Best shot ever with a 1911 45 pistol ... Thx pilot and good friend Ramey H!

Best Shot with a 1911. Ever.

By Philip Bourjaily

While compiling the timeline for Pistol of the Century, our tribute to the 1911 in the June issue of Field & Stream, I read through many accounts of the 1911 in combat.

The most unusual shot (and possibly the best ever), made in wartime with a 1911 pistol, had to be the one fired by a USAAF B-24 co-pilot named Owen J. Baggett in March, 1943, in the skies over Burma. Of course, I am biased toward this one, as it involves a flying target.

On a mission to destroy a railroad bridge, Baggett's bomber squadron was intercepted by Japanese Zero fighters and his plane was badly damaged. After holding off the enemy with the top turret .50s, while the gunner tried to put out onboard fires, Baggett bailed out with the rest of the crew.

He and four others escaped the burning bomber before it exploded.

The Zero pilots circled back to strafe the parachuting crewmen, killing two and lightly wounding Baggett, who played dead in his harness, hoping the Japanese would leave him alone. Though playing dead, Baggett still drew his .45 and hid it alongside his leg…just in case. A Zero approached within a few feet of Baggett at near stall speeds.

The pilot opened the canopy for a better look at his victim.

Baggett raised his pistol and fired four shots into the cockpit. The Zero spun out of sight. Although Baggett could never believe he had shot down a fighter plane with his pistol, at least one credible report said the plane was found crashed, the pilot thrown clear of the wreckage with a single bullet in his head.

If Baggett really did shoot down a fighter with his 1911, it has to count as one of the greatest feats ever accomplished with a .45. Baggett survived two years in a Japanese prison camp in Singapore and eventually retired from the Air Force as a colonel.

Your Freedom Wasn't & Still Isn't Free!

Rare Old Photographs ... Thanks good friend, Anon Ymous!

Rare old photographs:

September 1933 - Adolf Hitler breaks ground on his ambitious plans to link all major German cities with highways.  This ceremony kicked off construction of the Frankfurt-am-Maine - Darmstadt/Mannheim highway. Betty White at home with her dog in 1952 An iceberg photographed in 1912 bearing an unmistakable mark of black and red paint.  It is believed that this is the iceberg that sake the Titanic. Ham the chimp returns to Earth following his historic 16 minute space flight in 1961. The rather luxurious seating area of the submarine, The Protector, in 1902. Medical students pose with a cadaver around 1890. The fuel tanks of the B-24H Liberator "Little Warrior" explode over Germany after being hit by anti-aircraft guns in 1944. The Kennedy family leave the funeral of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Native American couple, Situwuka and Katkwachsnea in 1912. Camp Commandant Amon Goeth, infamous from the movie "Schindler's List", on the balcony of his house overlooking Plaszow labor camp, Poland. 1943-44. Construction of the Sydney Opera House in 1966. 1945 - German POWs weep and sit in disgust as they watch footage shot at a German concentration camp. June 1915, Gallipoli: a Turkish sniper/sharpshooter, dressed as a tree, is captured by two Anzacs. Dinosaurs are transported on the Hudson River to the 1964 World's Fair. The Golden Gate Bridge around 1935. Children for sale in Chicago, 1948.  Some parents sold their children due to poverty. Mourners pay their respect to slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evars in 1963.  His killer was finally convicted in 1994. Union prisoners receive rations at Fort Sumter in 1864. The mugshot of Tokyo Rose, 1946. A rescue boat comes alongside the crippled USS West Virginia shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Two childhood friends unexpectedly reunite on opposite sides of a demonstration in 1972. Survivors of the Titanic are taken on board the Carpathia in 1912. Wieluñ just after German Luftwaffe bombing the 1st of September 1939. Not only did this bombing provide a spark for World War II, but it is generally believed to be the first terrorist bombing in history. Soviet soldiers stand dumfounded at a large pile of human ashes found at the Majdanek concentration camp in 1944. A burial at sea on board the USS Lexington in 1944. Crowds rush through the castle on Disneyland's opening day in 1955. A lion rides in the sidecar during a performance of The Wall of Death carnival attraction at Revere Beach, Massachusetts in 1929. Future presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush with Governor George Wallace at a BBQ in 1983. Dr. Werhner von Braun and Walt Disney in 1954. The Statue of Liberty photographed during a power failure in 1942. The RMS Olympic, the Titanic's sister ship, in wartime camouflage in 1915. Anastasia shares a smoke with her father, Tsar Nicholas II two years before their assassination in 1916. Children rush into a candy store following the end of "sweets rationing" in 1953. Soldiers comfort each other during the Korean war in the early 1950's. Albert Einstein brings sexy back in 1932. What is thought to be the oldest known war photograph: New Hampshire volunteers depart for the Mexican War in 1846. Coney Island in 1905. George W. Bush plays a little dirty rugby for Yale in 1966. Arnold Schwarzenegger shows off to some elderly women in the 1970's. Six year-old Arthur Conan-Doyle in 1865. Construction of Hoover Dam in 1934. Frank Sinatra asks Lou Gehrig for an autograph in 1939. Harry Houdini exposes "spirit trickery" in 1925. OJ Simpson carries the Olympic Torch in 1984.  Nichole Brown can be seen on the left. A permanent stable cavity caused by the detonation on an underground nuclear test in 1961. Vladimir Putin and his childhood friends in 1969.  None of them have been seen since! Amelia Earhart receives what proved to be her last haircut in 1937. The Japanese "War Tuba" used to locate enemy aircraft before the invention of radar.  Circa 1930. Washington-Hoover Airport which was demolished in 1941.  This is where the Pentagon stands today. Mark Twain in 1883. The aftermath of the Great Hurricane of 1900 which killed an estimated 8,000 people in Galveston, Texas. Prosthetic legs in 1900. Is this the mummified body of John Wilkes Booth?  No... but it traveled the country for decades as a carnival exhibit under that claim. Circa 1939. The earliest known aerial photograph, taken from a balloon over Paris in 1858.