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No, those were carved by hand by my grandfather while sitting in the tank. They were carved out of the windscreen of a downed German plane. They're referred to as "Sweetheart grips" and were common in WWII since usually a photo of the soldier's sweetheart was placed behind the clear grips. My grandfather used an American flag on one side, and a picture of his cattle dog and favorite hunting place on the other...

Here's my Grandpa in Italy, but he's wearing his 1911. He preferred it to the revolver.

I remember when "Fury" came out that a lot of people were talking about the sweetheart grips on War Daddy's pistol. @PNWexplorer that's a beautiful piece.

Ok so this was about a year ago and it occurred in the winter. I was going to pick up my cousin for snowboarding and keep in mind he lives in Mercersburg where its not heavily populated and its a lot of fields. So as we arrived I checked to see if he was sledding or something like that in his backyard. His neighborhood in this wooded area along the road so his whole yard is just woods. So I checked and He wasn't back there so i was just checking out his backyard and in the woods i saw something like walking in the woods. I looked like it had black fur and it was maybe like 7 foot tall. So i ran out of there thinking something was back there and i was scared. now ive been in the woods all my life fishing and hunting and stuff like that and I've really never been scared of anything like that. Now my cousins has said he has seen somethings out there when he was little but it was probably just his imagination. I did have this one encounter that was in Ohio. It was last year too and it was in the fall. me and my pap were out hunting and we were in this blind looking over this hollow. And all of a sudden we heard singing or humming. i told my pap did you hear that and he said it sounded like the flute. now that was something ive never heard before. and you can even ask him about it and he will tell you its true.

If I had to live in NY, or in the Midwest, I'd be grouchy, too...

Cold chills, PNW. Dad was a combat veteran, B-17 waist-gunner, but didn't bring back anything cool. I've an uncle, also B-17 waist-gunner, that brought back his 1911A1.

After years of desire, one finally came into the shop I managed. Excellent, original condition, EXCEPT some numbskull had ground off the "Property of US Army" from beneath the barrel. Ugh! Destroyed collector value. Yet, it was simply in excellent condition, a serviceable large frame S&W in God's cartridge. I snatched it up, immediately. I had several friends among the smiths at Cylinder and Slide https://www.cylinder-slide.com/, in my city of the time, and so made the M1917 into one helluva bowling pin shooter. New sights, Hogue grips (I sold the original, fairly minuscule stocks for nearly $100), a dual ball-detent lockup, and the matte finish. Of course I'm using modern full-moon clips rather than the half-moons. We opened up the rear sight groove, and installed a new front sight. That's a brass rod extending back horizontally. This old warrior resides upon my bedroom nightstand. Norse, ACP only. PNW, that's a beautiful Smith, and it's history must make it a prized possession.

Carried by my grandfather in WWII as a tank crewman and the inspiration for the Brad Pitt sidearm in the movie "Fury"...