Or was the manufacturing of that amount of pistols seen as a waste of time and raw materials?
During WWll did normal U.S.A and/or German solders carry a pistol as a standard issue sidearm?
Generally not, with a few exceptions. Each member of the headquarters and headquarters company of a Ranger infantry battalion (ninety-six men) was issued an M1911 pistol as a sidearm or main weapon, as were seventeen of the sixty-five members of each Ranger infantry company (the company first sergeant, the two platoon sergeants, the four light machine gun gunners and assistant gunners in the assault sections, the special weapons section leader, and the mortar gunner and assistant gunner in the special weapons section). Pistols were profuse as sidearms in the parachute infantry regiment T/O&E of 17 February 1942 (1,753 pistols issued for 2,029 officers and men), but they had all but disappeared by 26 February 1944 and the issuance of change 3, being deleted entirely or replaced with carbines. By the time a new edition of the T/O&E was issued on 1 August 1944, only eleven pistols were authorized in the regiment; five in the headquarters company (one each for the regimental commander, executive officer, S-2, S-3, and S-4), and two in each of the three battalions (one each for the battalion commander and his executive officer).
The average infantryman would have also had limited experience with pistols; they were mostly issued as sidearms to men who were not expected to be involved in combat but still needed a weapon to defend themselves with (mostly staff officers at battalion level and above), or to men whose main role was the direct use (i.e., a gunner or a gunner's assistant) of another weapon, especially a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, mortar, or antitank gun. In the infantry regiment T/O&E of 26 February 1944, there were 293 pistols authorized for 3,068 armed men, all as either "main" weapons or issued as sidearms to crew-served weapon crewmen.
Regimental commander, executive officer, S-2 and S-3
Service Company - 1
Regimental S-4
Antitank Company - 45
Antitank gunners (9) and cannoneers (36)
Three infantry battalions - 243 (81 each)
Battalion commander and executive officer, three antitank gunners, and twelve cannoneers in battalion headquarters and headquarters company (17)
Three rifle companies - 30 (10 each)
One heavy weapons company - 34
A reenactment group centering on the 100th Infantry Division has conducted significant primary source research concerning weapons and field gear, both in their "by the book" and "in the field" (actual) use, using both material from the National Archives as well as memoirs and in-person conversations with 100th Infantry Division veterans.
The treatise on the "in the field" use of the M1911 pistol;
What is seen in photographs and memoirs of 100th Infantry Division soldiers follows closely with the TO/E, namely, the people issued and using the M1911A1 pistol are in Weapons Platoons, Heavy Weapons Companies, and the Anti-Tank Platoons.
However, there were several things that were unexpected. First of all, it was surprising how closely it seemed the soldiers stuck to the TO&E in the field, in several cases doing it automatically. This is well illustrated in Frank Hancock’s (M/399) “An Improbable Machine Gunner” when he moves from Machine Gunner to Squad Leader he hands over his pistol to the new Machine Gunner and starts carrying only a rifle.
This leads to the next observation that took us by surprise: very few enlisted men talk about carrying the M1911A1 in addition to another small arm. For the most part, if the person is carrying an M1911A1 pistol and another small arm, like a Carbine, that generally indicates that they are an officer. One of the exceptions in 100th to this rule was Rufus Dalton (H/397) who carried an M1 Rifle and 1911A1 pistol while acting as a bodyguard to Captain Maiale, his company commander. Overall we have found more examples of soldiers carrying the M3 Submachine Gun in addition to another weapon than the M1911A1 Pistol.
What is also interesting is how it seems, outside of company grade officers, most people in photos and nearly everyone in memoirs who has an M1911A1 pistol has one according to the TO&E and, thus, there are very few “acquired” M1911A1 pistols. One of the few cases in the memoirs where there might be an acquired M1911A1 is Craig Davison’s and Bill Law’s (E/397) book “Boxcars and Burps-Easy Does It” where one of the drivers is mentioned having a pistol. Another case is in Charles W. Gregory’s (AT/399) “Stories I Have Told” where he mentions .45s that men in his AT Platoon have procured, however, per TO&E there were already 15 M1911A1 pistols in the platoon for the 1 officer and 23 men. Furthermore, while company grade officers seem to be the biggest exception to the TO&E rule from some veteran accounts and especially photographs, it appears most company grade officers did not carry pistols, despite what many reenactors seem to believe.
Another notable exception to the TO&E issuance of 1911A1s to enlisted men are Bazooka Gunners. Dick Drury (E/397) specifically mentions that he carried an M1911A1 pistol when he was acting as a Bazooka Gunner. This seems to have been a fairly common and recommended practice in the ETO during the Winter of 1944-1945 based off of the ETO “Battle Experiences” which contains three different references to units recommending issuing Bazooka Gunners pistols both to lighten their load and to encourage the feeling that the bazooka is their primary weapon. This fits the pattern already present in the TO&E of issuing pistols to Machine Gunners and Mortar Gunners.
It is likely that one reason many soldiers did not pick up M1911A1 pistols was that they were fairly useless to most men. Frank Hancock (M/399) remarked that “the .45 caliber Colt semi-automatic pistol is clumsy and heavy. I can’t imagine firing it at anything more than 50 yards away.” With a soldier in Pfc. R. Emory Smith’s (A/398) Squad remarking “I can’t hit a thing with this [pistol]” and an officer remarking "Damn!" when he discovered that Rufus Dalton’s (H/397) only armament was an M1911A1 pistol.
Simply put, most 100th Division memoirs agree that marksmanship with the pistol was at best difficult. Our review of 100th Division members memoirs only revealed one soldier, Pfc. Keith Hadley, who killed a German with his M1911A1 pistol. In most cases the soldiers either missed, like the unnamed private who fired 18 rounds at one German without a single hit in Charles W. Gregory’s (AT/399) account, or the friend of Frank Hancock (M/399) who nearly emptied a magazine at point blank range at a German Soldier only to miss and get captured. It seems that most of the time the pistol was used to threaten American soldiers, as was the case with Sam Resnick’s (D/399) platoon leader Lt. Nageotte or famously the 1st Battalion, 399th's Commander, Colonel Zehner, or to accidentally shoot oneself, a friend, or an inanimate object while cleaning it. In all likelihood, the ones who had to fear the most of the M1911A1 pistol were rodents, as mentioned by John M. Khoury (L/399).
For many men, it seems the pistol was used so infrequently that like Pfc. R. Emory Smith (A/398) the ammunition corroded into the magazine of the pistol as “enchantment with the pistol turned to disenchantment in direct proportion to proximity to Germans.” This seems to be the case no matter how much comfort the pistol provided while on watch in a foxhole.