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Coltautos.com Gun of the Month - August 2010
Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless .32 ACP
U.S. Property Marked
Shipped to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
Issued to Colonel Ivan Lawrence Brenneman

Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless .32 ACP pistol serial number 559768 - U.S. PROPERTY marked, blue finish, checkered walnut stocks issued to Lt. Col. Ivan L. Brenneman.  This gun is accompanied by its' original box numbered to the gun, instruction sheet and two spare full blue magazines.

Right side.  U.S. PROPERTY mark on right side of frame above trigger area.

Colonel Ivan Lawrence Brenneman
11 August 1904 - 14 March 1982

Colonel Ivan Lawrence BRENNEMAN at Papworth Hospital aged 77. After graduation from Coe College, Iowa and ten years with the General Electric Company in accounting, the US Army became his lifetime career. He was the first TRANSPORTATION CORPS Officer to arrive in England in 1942 and the last one to leave.

He worked in Eisenhower's headquarters and was one of the very few to know the exact timing of D-Day. His US Army career began as a 2nd Lt in Infantry (16th) at Governor's Island, New York. He did various Reserve annual tours of active duty (2 weeks a year plus 1 or 2 nights per week) at Plattsburg, New York, Fort Niagara and at Fort Dix. In October, 1940 he was called to active duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey. In June 1942 he shipped out on the Queen Elizabeth to the UK where he served in Logistics in London, Cheltenham and Portsmouth.

In September 1945 he moved to Paris, Rheims and Frankfurt in Transportation but by August 1946 was back in London working hard to get everybody back to the USA where he was the last US Transportation Officer to leave. He returned to New York briefly, then served for five years at the Pentagon in Washington DC as a planner for the Chief of Transportation. He attended the Industrial College at Fort McNair and then went back to the Pentagon as Chief of Doctrine for G-4 Logistics.

From September 1951 to January 1952 he was Transportation Officer, 3rd Army in Atlanta, Georgia and from there was sent to Stuttgart, Germany as Commander of the 10th Truck Group. In July 1953 he moved to Orleans, France as Commander of the 9th Truck Group. Finally, he returned to New York in January 1955 where he wore two hats for nearly five years as Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of the Port of Embarkation at Brooklyn, New York where he ended his Army career as the Commander.

With his wife Norma, he returned to England in November 1959. They lived for several years in London before buying a country cottage in Stambourne, Essex.

Original two-piece kraft shipping box, numbered to the pistol.

Colt Factory Letter indicates that Colt Model1903 Pocket Hammerless .32 ACP sn 559768 was shipped to the Office of Strategic Services, Fowler Building, Rosslyn, Virginia, September 8, 1944, factory order number 4420, number of same type guns in shipment were 320.

Photo credit: Geoffrey Gillon

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