The history of the pistol in the photos above:

     In the early 1980’s my father in law (James Carey) loved to tell me stories of when he was in World War II. Stories he seldom told to anyone else. He was a very quiet man and was a Sergeant in the US Army and was a forward artillery spotter. Because he was a forward artillery spotter, he quite often got close to the front line. And in some cases well over that line into the Japanese side. He held two bronze stars and other accommodations for some of the action he took. But that is another story.

     He recalled calling in artillery fire on an air field being held by the Japanese. The rounds were coming in pretty hard and fast and finding their targets when he noticed a white flag tied onto a stick being waived from one of the windows of a building. He said he quickly called off the fire and asked what he should do from his commanding officer. He was told by the commanding officer he was well behind the Japanese lines. In fact, he was well over 45 minutes away from his lines. The commanding officer told Jim he would have to take the surrender himself with the 10 men he had and hold the air strip. My father in law had his men cover him as he went to talk to the Japanese officer. Turns out the Japanese General commanding the air field was killed and a Colonel was now in charge. He offered Jim his side arm (a 380 auto Browning) which Jim took and slid into his shirt. The prisoners, some 40 of them were marched to the end of the landing strip where he felt if he had to he could call in artillery rounds if they tried to escape. This is not one of the two actions that got Jim his two bronze stars, but the two bronze stars where what helped him to keep the pistol from being taken away by the Army when he returned home to the US.

     After Jim told me this story of how he got the pistol, he took me into his bedroom and opened a strong box where the pistol was locked up. It was not until some time later after he passed away in October 1992 that the family was going through some of his thing that the pistol was discovered. None of his three sons wanted a firearm in their house and as I did collect them, it was given to me.