Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyles
Good (and lucky!) story on that one. A little too common-sense a practice for up here. Cabelas up here dropped .38 S&W up here (foolishly since there are so many surplus S&Ws up here) and I took home the last case, but I have a lot of guns in that caliber...
I read once that the Brit OPs were mainly sent to the 8th Army in North Africa but don't know how true it is.
|
There is so much in the way of myth and rumors about where the Colt OP's went. I've heard that many of the Woowich stamped OP's (which mine is. Proof mark of a w inside of a crown on the left hand side of the frame) of which there are approximately 18,000 went to the India-Burma Theater and were issued to the RAF. I've also found info that says the bulk of the Woolwich OP's were issued to police officers around the (British controlled portion) globe. Others state that the OP's went whereever they needed handguns during the war. I can tell you that my example has no real holster wear on it - unlike my commercial OP in 38 Special. I could see it having just sat in an arms-room for most of it's time on active duty. Oh and the legend also goes that the bulk of the Smith & Wesson M&P's in 38/200 went to the Army.
I do know that in the classic auto-biography
The Hundred Days Of Lt. MacHorton by Ian MacHorton he specifically writes that he was issued a Colt revolver in 38/200 and a Thompson sub-machine gun. MacHorten was with the Chindits under Ord Wingate in Burma so that might back up the India-Burma info, but WWII was a big war and people and weapons were everywhere so who really knows.