A friend of mine came up with a 'Vendor's Shipping Document' (doesn't have a form number on it). It shows 3522 M1911A1s shipped from the Ithaca Gun Co on 6/28/44 to the Topeka Army Air Base, Topeka KS. Serial numbers: 1464757 thru 1466766 and 1465773 thru 1468294. They were inspected by A.M (maybe 'H') McGovern, Jr. They were to be marked for Ordnance Property Officer, Staging Stock.
Topeka Army Air Base was a training base for B 17 and B 24 crews. Pilots were trained someplace, bombardiers someplace else and gunners someplace else again. After training they were brought to the Topeka Army Air Base, and other similair bases, to be formed into crews and trained as crews. Then they were sent overseas into combat. The process was called 'staging' and the staging stock represented pistols to be issued to crews before they departed for the war zone.
I thought this might be of interest.
Edited to add: The document indicates that the government furnished 3522 barrels, I guess Ithaca didn't make barrels. Probably Hi Standard barrels?
