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  • Baker arms collection

    1911A1 Remington Rand

    Our 1911A1 Remington Rand .45ACP pistol has a unique history. During an auction in Auckland, my uncle intended to bid on a BAR, but my grandmother was drawn to the pristine 1911A1 on display. She successfully bid for it, adding it to our collection since Australian gun laws were stricter than New Zealand’s. The pistol stayed with my uncle in New Zealand until we managed the paperwork to import it to Australia, possibly firing its first rounds during a visit before joining our collection.

    The United States adopted the M1911 pistol just in time for the First World War. Between Colt and Springfield Armory, roughly 643,000 pistols were produced by the end of 1918. As the war went on, and through the pistol’s service in France, a number of practical improvements were identified. These changes were eventually rolled into a batch of 10,000 pistols ordered from Colt in 1924, though they wouldn’t receive an official designation until years later. A second order of 10,000 followed in 1938. These pistols became the first officially designated M1911A1s. The updates focused on improving handling, including reshaped mainspring housing, larger sights, a longer grip tang, and a shorter trigger reach.

    In 1939, the U.S. government issued contracts for what were known as M1911A1 “educational” pistols. These contracts called for just 500 pistols each and were intended to fund the creation of complete production tooling, which would then be stored for potential future use. Similar contracts were issued for rifles and machine guns. Two companies received these contracts: Harrington & Richardson, and the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Singers successfully completed its pistols but soon shifted to higher-priority wartime production such as artillery sights. H&R, on the other hand, was unable to complete its contract, which was ultimately cancelled in the spring of 1942.

    Once the United States entered the war, demand for pistols increased dramatically. Three additional manufacturers were brought on to produce the M1911A1: Remington-Rand, Ithaca, and Union Switch & Signal. Alongside existing production at Colt and Springfield, these companies produced roughly 1.9 million pistols during the Second World War—enough to equip all branches of the U.S. military until the platform was finally replaced by the Beretta 92 in 1985.

    The example being discussed here is a Remington-Rand pistol manufactured in April 1945. Remington-Rand received its first contract in May 1942 and delivered its final pistols in July 1945. Over that period, the company produced a total of 877,751 pistols, falling within the following serial number blocks:

    916405 – 1041404

    1279699 – 1441430

    1471431 – 1609528

    1743847 – 1816641

    1890504 – 2075103

    2164404 – 2244803

    2380014 – 2619013 (with the final pistol numbered 2465139)

    Our 1911 has the serial Number of 1474846 which means it was manufactured in 1943 and is part of the 3rd batch Remington Rand produced.

    It is a common misconception that these pistols were made by the well-known firearms company Remington. You can see why but in fact Remington rand was a typewriter company based in Syracuse, New York, USA. Who was just one of the companies that were given a educational contracts for the 1911A1.

    I hope you enjoyed a close look at our 1911A1 Remington Rand!

  • Baker arms collection

    A soldiers dairy

    Written by Kevin Baker, edited by Cory Baker.

    I often wondered where my passion for collecting and history came from, but I guess it all started when I was a boy, I used to stay on my grandparents farm over school holiday’s and fossick through their hot water cupboard where my grandfather kept all his treasures that he had collected when he went off to WW1, one that sticks in my mind is a very thick and wide army belt that was and still is studded with pins and badge, Grandfather used to collect these badges to fill his belt while he was reviving in England, I have the belt in my collection and it is my most precious possessions, this all leads me to the story of how my grandfather John Leslie Hume went to WW1 on a ship with his best freind Jim Earl, as the story goes grandfather got sick from the Spanish flu, the two of them got separated on the ship so Jim went looking for him and found him laying around the deck , Jim nursed grandfather through the worst of the flu and into reasonable health saving his life, fast forward till the internet came about and I start researching Troopships and my Grandfathers name and found his army papers and the name of the ship they traveled on, the Tahiti.

    The troops aboard the Tahiti including my grandfather and Jim were some of the last replacements sent to the Western Front from new Zealand, they were also some of the first New Zealanders known to suffer from the infection of the Spanish flu. Further research had me reading a diary written by another soldier who had been on the same voyage.as I read this diary some of the story’s of grandfather laying around the deck rang true, the ship was so over crowded with very little ventilation, men were out on the deck trying to get fresh air and space, by the sound of it the Spanish flue was picked up at Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, Upon arrival the officers aboard received reports of illness in Freetown, which had just become infected by the deadly second wave of the 1918 influenza, and those onboard were prevented from disembarking, but This did not prevent local workers from resupplying the ship as it waited in harbour, The Tahiti left Freetown on the 26 of august, On the day of sailing influenza case patients began to be admitted to the onboard hospital, soon after that the burials at sea started, finally reached Plymouth on 10 September, 1918. 68 men had died, and another nine would pass away ashore.

    The Tahiti troopship.

    The situation onboard was so severe that special trains were sent to Plymouth to transport the sick to influenza hospitals. Six weeks after arrival in Britain, only 260 of more than 1200 troops from the ship were fit for service. Seven percent of those who started the voyage from New Zealand died from the influenza, making the outbreak on the Tahiti several times more severe than that which eventually struck New Zealand.

    None of the 40th Reinforcements soldiers experienced combat as part of WWI; the war ended on November 11, 1918. 

    A few interesting facts I learnt about the ship herself, She was launched in 1904 in Scotland as RMS Port Kingston for a subsidiary of Elder Dempster Lines. In 1911 the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand bought her and renamed her the Tahiti , after her service as a troop ship she was returned to her owner, In 1927 Tahiti collided with a ferry in Sydney Harbour, killing 40 ferry passengers.

    In 1930 Tahiti sank without loss of life in the South Pacific Ocean due to flooding caused by a broken propeller shaft.

    Thats my grandfather in the photo sitting front middle

    Cheers

    Kevin James Baker

    John Leslie Hume No 76930 40th Reinforcement. NZEF.

    Born 19th Nov 1898 at Devonport Auck

    Died 28th Oct. 1977

  • Baker arms collection

    My first post on this new website

    I’m laying on my bed, after texting back and forth with my uncle Ron from New Zealand. We both were talking about how good it would be one owning an original World War 2 Lee Enfield No4 (T) sniper rifle one day.

    Uncle Ron has always wanted one for his collection. My dad’s uncle was a sniper in the Second World War and used one of these rifles. He actually told my uncle the serial number one but my uncle never wrote it down. Can you imagine what an awesome feeling it would be to actually tack down that rifle. I suspect virtually impossible but what isn’t is trying to find an original sniper rifle of the same model. Not impossible but definitely very difficult says my Uncle.

    As people get standard Lee Enfield No.4 models, Slap a check rest on them and put a old original scopes on them to try and pass them as original sniper rifles. I’m not picky, perhaps it would be cool to get a Lee No4 for myself and make up a sniper rifle recreation for my own collection. never passing it off as original of cause. maybe a cool project in the future. In fact that’s basically how they were originally made in the first place. they would find particularly accurate No4’s and slap a scope on them and put a cheek rest on… and done. you have yourself a model T.

    Never the less if I do that in the future I will be sure to post it here for you all to see.