French MacLean, Author at The Fifth Field

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So far French MacLean has created 273 blog entries.

A Distinguished Soldier’s View of Dying Hard

The following review comes from quite a remarkable US Army Infantry officer:

“I just finished Dying Hard. Wow! What a great read. You have captured the visceral feel of what the charter members of the Greatest Generation were so silent about. Your research is evident on every page and it makes the reading interesting, informative, and enjoyable. I do my reading in the last hour and a half every night. I found myself looking forward to that time during the day and in a few cases, like today, I cheated and read during the day.

I hope somehow that the children and descendants of the solders you write about know about the book. What joy and pride it would / will bring to them when they read it. I know the effort it must have taken to get the firsthand accounts and the diligence it took in your research to mine such great information and personal detail.

Your history of the company during the Battle of the Bulge gave the reader a great feel for the frustration and challenges leaders at the squad, platoon, and company level had to endure. The constant rotation of soldiers in and out of the company must have been frustrating and disheartening to leaders at every level. Reading Jack Dunlap’s detailed daily reports lays out exactly what junior leaders had to overcome to get the even simplest things done.

I recently read, Antony Beevor’s Ardennes 1944. Dying Hard gives a much better view of what that battle was like for the common soldier, not just the fighting but the challenges of everyday life as a grunt. Dying Hard introduced me to Paddy Flint. What a hero and great leader who understood how to inspire his entire unit with his lead from the front and deeds not words leadership.

I very much enjoyed the School of the Solder. It brought back many memories. This 30 veteran learned some things I did not know about the gear that I carried for three decades. It’s funny, my Dad gave the same advice about not playing cards with Sergeants. I caught myself several times wiping a tear from my eye as I read about the great soldiers lives during and after the war. They truly were the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation.

I am glad that you have written a book about one of the many units that were not elite or famous. These were the yeoman units that really won the war but unfortunately got very little press, praise, or recognition. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed Dying Hard. You have helped me decide on what to buy my son for Christmas. The research is exceptional, and the writing is wonderful. It stands among the very best WWII reads I have had.”

A Distinguished Soldier’s View of Dying HardFrench MacLean2025-01-08T16:08:13-06:00

Selected Photo Captions

Below are a few captions that accompany some of the excellent photos in the book, so you know what to expect!

The Town Pump – Fayetteville 1942. The fights, brawls, and near-riots here involving soldiers of the 9th Infantry and 82nd Airborne proved that the US Army had found its “hard core of scrappers.” Note 9th Infantry patch on bottom center soldier.

Company B sprinted across the Remagen bridge under heavy fire on March 10, 1945. “When we got to the end we found a captain and his driver in a jeep burning like an inferno, a direct hit.”

When the Army issued a few beers to soldiers off the line, such as to the 9th Infantry in November 1944, it was just bowing to the inevitable, because no one is more creative than American service members at obtaining booze.

Private Snafu – goofy, ignorant, and obnoxious; star of 25 episodes of short US War Department black and white films instructing soldiers what not to do. One of the best was “Episode 5 – The Infantry Blues.” Most were written by Theodor Geisel, later author of children’s books under the pen name of Dr. Seuss.

Colonel Harry “Paddy” Flint outside his headquarters, England in 1944. The 39th Infantry took on his fighting spirit and trademark AAAO. The black handkerchief? Paddy explained, “It’s the pirate in me!”

Front gate Merode Castle. Bouncing Betty landmines, barbed wire, machine guns and snipers could not prevent First Battalion from storming the castle.

39th Infantry medics transfer wounded from sled to jeep and Weasel near Höfen January 31, 1945.

First photo of American forces liberating Stalag VI G April 13, 1945. Unit chaplains organize a religious service for the prisoners.

Major General Joseph Lawton “Lightning Joe” Collins during Merode attack. When the corps commander is watching your attack, you know you’ll get plenty of supporting artillery.

Selected Photo CaptionsFrench MacLean2025-03-29T18:08:04-05:00

Initial Thoughts on Dying Hard

An initial review from an “old” US Army Infantry colonel after reading Dying Hard:

I just finished Dying Hard. Wow! What a great read. You have captured the visceral feel of what the charter members of the Greatest Generation were so silent about. You research is evident on every page and it makes the reading interesting, informative, and enjoyable. I do my reading in the last hour and a half every night. I found myself looking forward to that time during the day and in a few cases, like today, I cheated and read during the day.

Dying Hard gives a much better view of what that battle was like for the common soldier, not just the fighting but the challenges of everyday life as a grunt. Dying Hard [also] introduced me to Paddy Flint. What a hero and great leader who understood how to inspire his entire unit with his lead from the front and deeds not words leadership. I want to learn more about him. His letter to Gen. Bradley was prophetic.

I very much enjoyed the School of the Soldier. It brought back many memories. This 30 veteran learned some things I did not know about the gear that I carried for three decades. It’s funny, my Dad gave the same advice about not playing cards with Sergeants. I caught myself several times wiping a tear from my eye as I read about the great soldiers lives during and after the war. They truly were the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation.

One of the big surprises to me was the number of times solders were wounded, many 2-3 times. Some used the wound to get out of the war, but the number who just wanted to get back to B company is a testament to the kind of men we bred back then.

I am glad that you have written a book about one of the many units that were not elite or famous. These were the yeoman units that really won the war but unfortunately got very little press, praise, or recognition. I particularly enjoyed following your father’s story line in the book. His story is fascinating. To survive the combat and then the Stalag was quite an accomplishment.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed Dying Hard. You have helped me decide on what to buy my son for Christmas. I have and will recommend it to all my friends as a must read.

Dying Hard stands among the very best WWII reads I have had. The research is exceptional, and the writing is wonderful.

Initial Thoughts on Dying HardFrench MacLean2025-03-29T18:11:33-05:00

Dying Hard — Maps

The following maps are found in the book:

Map 1: 39^th Regiment Landings, Company B, Algeria, November 8, 1942

Map 2: 39^th Infantry Regiment, Company B, Northern Tunisia, April 1943

Map 3: Company B, 39^th Infantry Regiment, Sicily 1943

Map 4: Panzer Lehr Division Attack of Company B, Le Dézert, Normandy, July 1944

Map 5: 9^th Infantry Division, Company B, Attack to Germeter, Hürtgen Forest

Map 6: Company B at Germeter, Hürtgen Forest, October 4 to 25, 1944

Map 7: Company B Defense of Elsenborn Ridge, Hohes Venn, Belgium

Map 8: Company B Attack of Siegfried Line Kalterherberg, Germany

Map 9: 9^th Infantry Division, Company B Crosses Remagen Bridge, March 10, 1945

Map 10: Significant Company B Locations, Late 1944-45

Dying Hard — MapsFrench MacLean2025-03-29T18:25:05-05:00

The American Army

Foreword – The American Soldier

Introduction – “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be”

Preface/Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 – Long Ago and Far Away, Ft. Bragg

Includes: Marksmanship Training; The Letter; Goldbricking; Mess Halls

Chapter 2 – The Old Reliables, Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily & England

Includes: Your Helmet; Private Snafu; Combat Fatigue; Mustangs; Officers & Sergeants; Combat Infantryman Badge; Bob Hope; The Army Way; Wounds

Chapter 3 – The Americans are coming! Across France & Belgium

Includes: Medics; Bazooka; Hooch; Sleep; Krauts, Jerries, Huns, Heinies & Fritz; IV-Fs & Jody; Tiger Tank; Guardian Angel

Chapter 4 – The Hell of the Hürtgen

Includes: May Hosiery Mill; Navigating through the Woods; C-Rations & K-Rations; German Discipline; M1s & BARs; Mortars; Maps; Pneumonia; Sounds

Chapter 5 – The Hohes Venn, Elsenborn Ridge (1), Merode Castle

Includes: Trench Foot; Unit Call Signs; Latrines; Gas Masks; Deuce and a Half; Foxholes; Booby Traps; The Uniform; Foraging, Scrounging & Looting; Radios; Infantry Tactics; Penicillin; Malmedy

Chapter 6 – Battle of the Bulge, Elsenborn Ridge (2), Kalterherberg

Includes: Glenn Miller; Hey Joe. Whaddya know?; Spam; Continental Stockade; Barbed Wire; Fruitcake; Victory Mail

Chapter 7 – Mac’s War Stalag VI G

Includes: Dog Tags; Missing in Action; Typhus

Chapter 8 – Dying a Man at a Time

Includes: Repple Depots; Silver Star; Snipers; Beware Traitor…the Werwolf Watches

Chapter 9 – “Show Me the Way to Go Home”

Includes: Operation Downfall

Conclusion – “I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me”

Includes: where every soldier who died in the final year of the war is buried

Epilogue – The Silent Generation

Includes: postwar information on many of the soldiers who survived

Appendix: Company B Personnel

Includes: name, service number, rank, duty positions, medals received, dates became casualties

Endnotes & Bibliography

Table of ContentsFrench MacLean2025-03-29T18:09:50-05:00

Why You Should Read Dying Hard

Dying Hard: Company B, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th US Infantry Division in WWII has arrived and folks are already reading it. You can go the publisher’s website, https://schifferbooks.com/products/dying-hard or go to Amazon.

342 pages; 10 maps of Company B during the war, emphasis on 1944-45. 16 pages photos, including composites showing 45 soldiers in the company. Many others are combat photos, many never in print before. Book is everything I hoped for. I think you’ll love it.

But why should you actually READ it?

Because it puts YOU in Company B. You’ll think you were there. North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Hürtgen Forest, Merode Castle, Battle of the Bulge, Remagen Bridge, and a little hellhole called Stalag VI G.

Secondly, you will fit right in with us in Company B. How do we know?

When something in life knocks you down, you get back up, wipe the blood off your nose, and say: “Is that all you’ve got?” you’re in Company B. If people told you that you were too small, too slow, too poor, or too anything, and you proved them all wrong, you’re in Company B.

Love dogs? In 1942, a young soldier found a stray dog in the Aleutian Islands and took care of him. Two years later, he put Buff in his duffel bag, climbed aboard a troopship with Buff in a duffel bag and sailed to Europe and Company B, where Buff was our mascot and pulled guard duty. So if you love dogs, you’re in Company B too.

Rise and shine, grab your helmet, and make sure your M1 Rifle is loaded. Because we’re all going back to the line.

Why You Should Read Dying HardFrench MacLean2025-03-29T18:14:33-05:00

Or We’ll Have Endless War

Way back in the day, some 200 years ago, Carl Clausewitz, a Prussian army officer, set out to analyze why the French army, under Napoleon, routed the Prussian army in numerous battles. He was confused because some 40 years earlier, it was the Prussian army that was kicking everyone’s ass in Europe. What had changed?

Rather than compare weapons, the size of armies, their tactics, and leaders, he took on the daunting task of identifying what he believed was the nature of war — the fundamental underpinnings of war — such as that it was violent, was a human activity, and was an extension of politics by other means. There were a few other characteristics, but if you want to delve into everything, grab Clausewitz’s book On War, some 731 pages and have fun, because there are no photos. Generation after generation of military officers around the world ever since, in war college after war college, have cursed the day they were assigned to read such a monstrosity. But later, the winners of almost every war were glad that they had.

One of Clausewitz’s most important concepts was that of the Center of Gravity, which some strategists believe is the characteristic, capability, or locality from which military force derives its freedom of action, physical strength, or will to fight. It might be the mass of the enemy force, or perhaps its logistical base, production capabilities or lines of communication. Other thinkers feel that the center of gravity might be economic resource or locality, cohesion of an alliance, or something even more intangible, such as morale or the national will. There usually is just one center of gravity, perhaps two, but if you identify more than that, you probably need to relook it.

Some folks default to claiming that one individual, such as a military general or political leader, is the center of gravity, but that logic is pretty precarious when analyzing past wars. Whatever the center of gravity, Clausewitz believed that you had to go after your enemy’s center of gravity and destroy or significantly degrade it, while protecting your own center of gravity from the enemy doing the same to you.

Here is a historical example that might help visualize this. In World War II, the center of gravity for the US — in my opinion — was our overwhelming technological, logistical and industrial base that enabled us to truly fight around the world, with significant numbers of outstanding weapons (think aircraft carriers, four-engine heavy bombers to take the fight to the enemy homeland, a lethal, flexible artillery fire support system for the army, millions of wheeled vehicles that made our army truly mobile {unlike the Germans who still used millions of horses}, the atomic bomb, radar, sonar, etc.) Sure, American fighting troops of all services played a huge role, but without those production/technology assets, we are on an equal footing with the Germans who had many more divisions than we did, jet aircraft, and excellent tanks. And we aren’t retaking the Pacific without airpower. And as far as protection, neither the Germans, nor the Japanese could attack American factories in the US, or bomb the Manhattan Project, or stop those assets from getting overseas. Our motto truly was: “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

Fast forward to today and the current Israeli-Palestinian fight in Gaza. Both sides seem to have been fighting forever. Both sides are heavily influenced by founding religious documents, the Old Testament and the Koran. Both sides want control of the same territory, which is almost too small to divide between the two to where both will be satisfied.

So, since the formal founding of Israel in 1948, there has been endless violence. People on both sides want control of the other, and some people on each side want the other side dead and gone. From the river to the sea for some means that their side will control all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, while others believe that area should be Jew free, or Arab free, take your pick.

So where would the “losing side” go? Israeli Jews are simply never going to march into cattle cars again for the one-way ride to an extermination center as happened in World War II. All the Jews pack up and move to Delaware? Europe doesn’t want them back to pre-WWII levels. All the Palestinians leave the Gaza strip, and the squalor of the refugee camps in Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan? Where are they going to go? Egypt doesn’t want them for fear that they will destabilize that country. Who wants endless refugee camps in which hatred and violence are preached every night to a population that appears to never want to ever assimilate anywhere else but between the river and the sea? Iran talks a good game, but most Palestinians are Sunni, and Iran is Shia, and strife between those two factions has led to countless millions of Muslim deaths since they started slugging it out 1400 years ago.

Which brings us to October 7, 2023 and the Hamas attack in the Gaza strip, killing over 1,000 Jews, many civilians, including children. The Israelis responded and have been at it ever since going after tunnel after tunnel in Gaza, probably killing 40,000 Palestinians, many civilians, including children. Israel has had nuclear weapons for over 50 years but has not used them. Iran appears to be getting close to obtaining an atomic weapon. If either side goes with a nuke attack, the casualty numbers will make 40,000 look like a walk in the park.

But it gets worse, or could. I have long thought that Israel has quietly spoken to every Islamic nation in the Middle East, and maybe even taken representatives of each on an all-expenses-paid nice holiday cruise on September 22, 1979 near the South African territory of Prince Edward Island in the Indian Ocean, where there was probably a nuclear device test explosion. And then the Israelis said something like: “Look boys, if anyone pops a nuke on Israel, we might not find out immediately who did it, because of all the devastation. So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to drop a big nuke on the Kaaba in Mecca, right away, because we’re going to assume it was one of you that nuked us. And not only will that be destroyed, but that whole area will be so filled with radiation that it will take 100 years before anyone can safely go there on a Hajj. And then when we do find out who did nuke us, we’re going to rain that country with nukes. It will be like The Great Flood, Part II. So you fellas need to keep each other in line. Hal fahimtum?”

And of course, what that would do, if Israel came through on that threat/promise, would be to create an endless war.

Right now, Israel is playing “whack a mole,” trying to kill Hamas leaders when they are located; Hezbollah too. That may work tactically for the short term, but what has Israel done to identify the true Center of Gravity of her enemies.

I believe that the Center of Gravity for radical, militant, Islam, be it Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc., is the current endless influx of young recruits from across Islam, which promises them martyrdom and eternal luxury and pleasure in heaven. Until that pipeline is permanently, not temporarily, broken through non-lethal means, by moral persuasion, winning hearts and minds, we’ll get endless October 7s, no matter how many current fighters and civilians are killed. These jihadis probably will not be completely persuaded by non-Muslims. That may take something like an Islamic Reformation.

Or We’ll Have Endless WarFrench MacLean2024-11-03T15:29:34-06:00

Put a Dot on It

For years I was reluctant to put a red dot optic on a pistol. There were just too many downsides, real and potential, I thought. The battery wouldn’t last long enough. And when it did run out, it would be at precisely the moment I truly needed it to function – not at the range, but in a self-defense situation. Then there was the optic itself. Everyone’s eyes are different. And when I tried red dot equipped pistols owned by friends, my particular eyes just didn’t pick up the red, plus the dot was either too small or too large. Finally, the cost was just too high, often easily half the cost of a modern defensive firearm – or more.

But I’ve now opened my eyes to recent developments. The phrase “optics ready” has become almost as prevalent on new pistols as the phrase “Picatinny rail” is on rifles. And even an old guy, like me, can see their major advantage – they are so easy to use. Just put the dot on the target and pull the trigger. That’s faster than iron sights that require you to line up the target, the front sight, and the rear sight. (For those of you that put Wyatt Earp to shame, and you really don’t need any stinkin’ sights to hit your intended target at any range, skip the rest of this. For the other 99.7%, including me, keep reading.) But there’s another key advantage. Front sights can be pretty big. Even the smaller ones can still obscure targets, more so at greater distances. A smaller dot makes it easier to see the target, and if a target is easier to see, it is easier to hit.

Or not to hit! The truly great shooter knows when not to shoot. Like if the perp coming toward you wasn’t really a perp, but you couldn’t see enough of him before you pulled the trigger and it was some truly innocent person. Individual citizens don’t get to claim collateral damage.

Take the Holosun HE 307C-GR X2 for example. Mounted on a Walther WMP .22 Magnum. It weighs almost nothing. 1.5 ounces. It’s a green optic, not a red, and for me I see green much, much better. It’s actually three optics. You can go with just the 2 MOA green dot. Or press a little button and change that to a 32 MOA green circle with four small tics on it at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions. Or press the little button again and your third option is the green dot in the center of the green circle. You’ll find the one you like, and you might like different options for various types of shooting you do. You can also change optic brightness to one of 12 settings.

The sight uses a CR1632 battery that you can get almost anywhere, Walmart, CVS, etc., for just a few bucks. Battery life is claimed at 50,000 hours, which seems incredibly high, some 5.9185 years! Perhaps it’s that long, as you can have it go into sleep mode if it isn’t moving. And it has a feature called shake-awake, which turns it on by movement, so you don’t have to fumble around in a tense situation. There’s one more failsafe. In natural light, or bright artificial light, it’s tiny “solar panels” will power up the optic! But always have a spare battery.

Using the dot inside the circle, because it has up-down and left-right zeroing screws, with a HYSKORE sighting rest I could shoot all rounds of Speer 40-grain Gold Dot Personal Protection ammunition inside a one-inch circle. At 50 feet. Magnification is 1. So that means no enlargement. That’s good. Many shooters starting with red/green dots believe they need to focus on the dot when in reality, they need to focus on the target. You must look through the optic. Shooting with both eyes open, your binocular vision allows you to use this shooting method.

I turned the optic off and shot the pistol just looking through the sight window, in case of a catastrophic failure. It wasn’t nearly as accurate, but could do in a pinch. For me and this particular Walther, I tilted the barrel up and down until I could see the top of the front sight, because the rear sight is blocked. Put the top of the front sight on the center of the target and all rounds hit 4-6 inches straight up but not in a tight group.

It’s still expensive. Generally half the price of a Trijicon RMR. Box says it has a 3 year warranty. Not being a lawyer, can’t comment on how easy, or not, it is to return if you have problems. What weapon will you mount the optic on? Many gun manufacturers now include several different adapter plates – as did the Walther mentioned above – to ensure that you can mount most mainstream red/green dot options. But what about mounting it on something you already have? That may take a gunsmith to at least give you some cost options. And maybe do the work, so you don’t butcher it up.

Regardless of how compact, for concealed carriers, optics make the gun a bit larger and bulkier. So you have to plan ahead. But that’s the fun part – getting smart on the tools you have or plan to acquire. Because the best tool you have in your toolbox is not your pistol, or any type of sight. It is your brain and your ability to think.

Put a Dot on ItFrench MacLean2024-08-04T20:17:07-05:00

The Final Witness

I just read — for the Second time — The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence After Sixty Years, by Paul Landis, a Secret Service agent not interviewed by the Warren Commission, who quit the agency in 1964, and who kept silent until recently.

Maybe if the commission had interviewed him, future US Senator Arlen Specter wouldn’t have wasted everyone’s time on the “Magic Bullet Theory”, with its mystical properties of changing direction, that enabled the conclusion that the infamous Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole shooter of President John F. Kennedy and Texas Governor John B. Connally.

Let me cut right to the chase. If you ever had, or have, a passing interest in the Kennedy Assassination or were/are a full-fledged “addict” of the most-significant crime of the 20th century, buy this book. Read this book. Underline significant passages in this book so you don’t have to waste time finding them when you read this book again; and maybe again after that.

The book had a one-month backlog on Amazon. I now not only have a copy for myself, but have also bought the book for several friends. You have a lot to read in life, but this is an easy read. The first 130 pages are about Agent Landis’ life before November 22, 1963. He writes well and you’ll blast through these so quickly it will seem like you’re skimming.

Then you are at the heart of the matter, lasting about 30 pages. You will either believe Agent Landis, or ascribe that he is too old to remember details, or that he has an axe to grind why he did not remain in the Secret Service, or that he just wants to make money.

Let’s quickly examine all three potential beliefs. As the author of over 15 published non-fiction works, I can tell you that Agent Landis didn’t make enough money as a first-time author to make up for the crap he is probably getting daily on social media for upsetting established “truths.” Second, as an Army officer for over 30 years, I know PTSD when I see or hear it, and while I’m not a psychologist, I know that he never got over what he experienced that day, and his resignation a year later proved that. He was right in the middle of the blood and the gore. And he couldn’t prevent it.

As to the facts, he presents so much detailed information, to include visual, audio and actually holding an intact bullet, and several bullet fragments, WHILE THEY WERE STILL IN THE PREIDENT’S LIMOUSINE.

In his book, he writes of three observations, from his position as a Secret Service agent who guarded the President’s wife and children. He started in a limo behind the President’s. Heard two shots from the rear that sounded different from one another. My take. This observation of sounding different could be a faulty memory. People remember songs well, but not exactly how individual instruments sound after the event. Two different sounds could be two different rifles, but they could also be the same weapon at changing distances and angles as the motorcade kept moving.

When they got to Parkland Hospital, Paul got into the President’s limousine while Mrs. Kennedy was in the back seat and found two bullet fragments on the seat beside her. Picked them up, looked at both quickly, and put them down where he had found them. My take. Happened as he said.

Now the last piece, and this is the big one. He helped lift JFK’s body out of the limo and on to a gurney. Then he helped Mrs. Kennedy stand up in the car, at which time he saw a completely intact bullet on top of the cushioning behind where she had been sitting. In other words, at that instant it was between the First Lady’s back and the back of her seat. My take. He was accurate, primarily because of what happened next.

Believing that the increasing crowd of people might include a souvenir-hunter, he puts the bullet into his pocket. However, he realizes in the examination room that he should not keep it, and places the bullet next to President Kennedy’s foot on the examination table. My take. Before writing this book, Paul Landis KNOWS that admitting that he took the bullet from the car will be critical of his conduct on that day. All he has to do is keep quiet and no one will ever know that. But he chooses the harder right and explains what he did and why he did it. This account rings true and accurate.

Conclusion. The intact bullet fell out of JFK’s back at some point during the shooting or the ride to Parkland. It could not have been the same “magic bullet” that supposedly went through the President, caused multiple wounds to John Connally and ended up on John Connally’s stretcher, having fallen out of Connally’s body.

It had fallen out of the President’s body, and later someone moved it from the side of the President’s foot to Connally’s stretcher — either by mistake or with intent.

Not even Arlen Specter can make a bullet go backwards and undo all the wounds it “supposedly” caused to the governor.

It also means that Oswald would have had to fire an additional shot that wounded just Connally. But he did not have time to do that.

Thank you, Paul Landis.

The Final WitnessFrench MacLean2024-07-04T09:57:05-05:00

You Can Do This — The Girsan MC 14T

If you are 24-years old, you can skip reading this, because you can easily handle a 9mm, .45 ACP, or even a 10mm semi-auto, and also teach John Wick not to waste ammo. But keep reading if you have grandparents who worked their fingers to the bone raising your father and your three wild uncles. Because now, pawpaw’s fingers are wracked with arthritis and neuropathy and he truly cannot smoothly “rack” a semi-auto pistol (pull the slide back and then let it go forward chambering a round.)

Maybe memaw tried a Smith & Wesson M&P 380 Shield EZ – “EZ” standing for easier to rack. But she just couldn’t do it unless she held the pistol in her left hand and racked it with her dominant right hand and then switched the weapon from left to right hand to fire it. And at the range, neither one could do that every time, without dropping it. Then maybe they tried a revolver, but it kicked so much that it wasn’t accurate, and with just six rounds, that wouldn’t cut it. This is not going to end well during a home invasion or being accosted walking their beloved Shih Tzu, Sparky, who hasn’t bitten anyone since Uncle Ted threw that firecracker in his general vicinity that one Fourth of July.

We reviewed several pistols concerning this topic and I promised I would get a Girsan MC 14T. .380 Auto and see what’s up. The answer is; the barrel. Semi-auto; double action or single action; measured double action trigger pull north of 8.5-lb (it is smooth and feels like less); and single action at 4.5-lb. Mag holds 13 rounds, but it’s easier to insert the magazine with 12 rounds in it. 4.5 inch barrel. 28.48 ounces loaded (including fourteen 95-grain Fiocchi rounds). Turkish engineers probably used Italian Beretta Model 86 Cheetah as a template.

So what makes it unique? And like pawpaw, I have arthritis and neuropathy in both hands. To load, insert the magazine in magazine well. Place right index fingertip on a lever just above the trigger on the right side and push lever downward. I could do this with just my right hand; it did not require steadying with my left. Rear of the barrel will pop up about half an inch. Load one round in, reach over with your left hand and use your left thumb to push the barrel back down, producing an audible click. Whenever you want to see if the pistol is loaded, just tip up the barrel and look, no racking required. In fact, because of its design, I could not rack it unless I first cocked the hammer back.

I could get a good hold with all four fingers (my handspan is 8.5″); grips have ridges but are not sharp. Beavertail keeps my thumb web low, so no slide “bite”. Five inches tall, and 7.5 inches long, pistol fits in a purse, if a lot of other stuff comes out. Too bulky for pants pocket unless cargo size; some jacket pockets OK; great for a fanny-pack pulled around the front, or for a nightstand or a vehicle. Accessory rail front underside of frame, but attaching anything might make it too bulky, plus it’s just another operating task to memorize. Instead of the rail, should have come with more than one magazine; you’ll have to order more, because just one mag on the range is a pain in the rear.

Nice white dot sights, but in my opinion, this is a 21-30 foot range self-defense/home defense weapon. Train to point, shoot, hit and repeat, and not waste time on long-range accuracy. Initially firing 170 FMJ rounds at 21-30 feet, had one failure to feed and one failure to fire. Opened tip-up barrel and found that round had distinct indent, so this was likely a bad primer. Other 168 FMJ rounds, fired standing unsupported, struck center chest of the half-size silhouette. Then fired seven rounds of each type of following self-defense ammo (84 rounds total) from sandbag support at 21 feet for basic group size.

Speer Gold Dot (90 grain) 1.125″ high; 1.125″ wide

Browning X-Point Defense (95 grain) 1.5″ high; 1.062″ wide

Remington HTP High Terminal Performance (88 grain) 2.125″ high; 0.875″ wide

Hornady American Gunner XTP (90 grain) 1.875″ high; 1.25″ wide

Winchester Silvertip (85 grain) 2.5″ high; 0.75″ wide

Winchester PDX 1 Defender (95 grain) 2.125″ high; 1.25″ wide

Underwood Maximum Expansion (68 grain) 2.125″ high; 1.25″ wide

Federal Punch Personal Defense (85 grain; 1000 fps) 2.25″ high; 1.875″ wide

Sig Sauer Elite Defense/Elite Performance (90 grain) 2.875″ high; 1.5″ wide

Norma MHP Home Defense (85 grain) 2.625″ high; 2.5″ wide; one failure to feed

Hornady Critical Defense (90 grain) 3.75″ high; 1.75″ wide

Fiocchi Defense Dynamics (90 grain) 5.25″ high; 2.25″ wide; one failure to fire

Nowhere on weapon or in owner’s manual is +P ammunition mentioned, so I don’t plan on firing any. It is a blowback operating system, generally chambered for small-caliber, low pressure cartridges, that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gas created by the ignition of the propellant charge. No extractor; to unload a round in the chamber, tip up the barrel and pull it out, which probably eliminates putting on a red dot.

This is not an argument that .380 is a better defensive round than something larger: I assume you would need 2-3 good hits in a fight; you can train to that. If your dexterity and strength do not allow you to fire more powerful rounds, your option may be this caliber, and maybe this weapon.

You Can Do This — The Girsan MC 14TFrench MacLean2024-04-14T12:05:47-05:00