The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond

SiCo

Thanks to B. L. Steele aka 7289 for the The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond article. An extremely detailed look at Bonds handguns from the novels.

Please leave your comments and questions here for 7289 who I am sure will be happy to respond.

Thanks again to 7289 for this excellent article.

Loeffelholz

Excellent article, 7289. Most interesting and enjoyable {[] I particularly enjoyed the photo of Bond's 'modified' .25 Beretta; it's pretty much as I'd imagined it might look, but it's always cool to see one's imagination validated Fleming's descriptions of Bond's firearms are one of the (many, many) things that make his work so much fun for me...

Also---belated thanks for your valuable assistance in my own 'Question for gun experts' thread...you might be interested to learn that, although my character does, in fact, carry the S&W 'Military & Police' .38 special with a 2" barrel on a day-to-day basis, he's going to end up actually killing someone with a purloined .38 Colt Police Positive...

Lazenby880

If I could echo Loeff's thoughts: A thoroughly enjoyable, informative and well-researched article 7289. This is an area I know very little about in Fleming's novels, however I feel suitably informed having read your article.

Well done and thank you muchly!

7289

Thanks for the positive comments. Bond's firearms have always been a keen interest of mine - glad to share what I've learned with others.

Thanks to SiCo for his help/patience in putting my article up on what I think is the best James Bond Website Extant!!!

Donald Grant

Yes, I concur. I liked the article very much. It was not just a fluff piece. It was obvious you did a fair bit of research. Good work!

DG

Hitch

A pleasure to read. Thank you.

Solaris

Hitch wrote:

A pleasure to read. Thank you.

Ditto

I loved the picture of Bond's adapted Beretta .25

scaramangasgoldengun

a 10/10 read I loved it some interesting and rare facts.

Great Work.

I love the photos I have been hunting a silenced Berretta for many years. Does anyone know where to get one. even if its an airsoft version

7289

scaramangasgoldengun wrote:

"I have been hunting a silenced Berretta for many years. Does anyone know where to get one. even if its an airsoft version"

While the 418 Beretta is far from a "rare" pistol. It is antique enough to be off the radar of the airsoft and replica companies. You are more likely to see replicas of the 950 Beretta which is still in production today in a slightly modified from. In decades past I had a plastic "squirt gun" version.

While not Bond's pistol the 950 Beretta has been used in Bond films, most notably "Thunderball" by Fiona Volpe who uses the 950 to hold Bond at bay while Yanni and Vargas frisk him.

Asp9mm

About time too {[] Absolutely excellent article, and 100% correct in observational detailing and verything else too!!! As far as I'm concerned anyhoo

This article is nothing short of brilliant. Now, on to Gardners arsenal...

superado

Thank you 7289, particularly for the research and the well thought out and nicely presented elimination process. Are those your firearms? Do you know if anyone makes/offers non-firing replicas of the model 418 Beretta and silencer?

7289

Superado,

The Beretta 418 is as far as I know not available as a replica. If you are in the USA it would be easier to find the real article and disable it for display - good idea if you are going to put a faux silencer on it.

Thanks for the nice words!

Asp9mm

scaramangasgoldengun wrote:

a
I love the photos I have been hunting a silenced Berretta for many years. Does anyone know where to get one. even if its an airsoft version

Give Alistair at Worthing Guns a ring. He'll be able to get you the live version deactivated. Plus he'll do a mock silencer (threaded internally unfortunately). Might take him a while though.

LLWIII

Mr. Steele,
Thank you for an absolutely superb article!

I have a question regarding the Beretta 418. While i absolutely agree on the date of the 418 as being from 1941, why do you refer that Bond's "last "new" Beretta was acquired no later than 1953"? While beliving that Bond could have at some point lost or replaced the 418, in Dr. No, the "choice of weapons" chapter, Bond reflects on his "fifteen years' marriage to the ugly bit of metal". I interpreted this bit of sentimentalism to portray that he had kept that particular pistol for 15 years.
I have been looking for a 1941 Beretta 418 for some time now - without luck... Some day i am sure one will turn up.
What is your opinion on the year and country of manufacture of Bond's first PPK? He was issued it in early 1956, which means it could have most likely been manufactured in either 1955 or 1956. Walther itself was allowed to start manufacturing firearms in Germany again sometime in 1955, so it could have been a german made (in Ulm) but more probably a French made Manurhin model. Walther firearms prewar are almost imposssible to accurately date due to the records being destroyed in the war, and post war firearms in this particular era are also very difficult due to poor records.
One last item...in your reference to Fleming's Sports Illustrated Article - i believe it was the March 19th issue.
Thank you again, the pictures are excellent, and the craftsmanship and attention to detail in your collection are amazing.

7289

LLWIII,

Thanks for the compliments! You asked excellent questions, and got me diving for my reference materials.

For starters the Sports Illustrated Article was in the March 19, 1962 issue.

For the sake of consistancy and to save arguement, I relied on John Griswold's fine book "Ian Fleming's James Bond, Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories". Mr. Griswold has pretty much written a "Bond Bible" that really enhances Fleming's work, especially now that the newest Fleming Bond was written in 1964! So using Griswold's "High Level Chronology" Bond started working for the SOE in 1941, so it is likely his use of the Beretta also begins in that year.

It appears that Bond may have had to replace his Beretta on several ocassions. We can't be sure of all of them, here is a list:

1) "Casino Royale", The Beretta is confiscated by LeChiffre after Bond wreaks the Bentley. LeChiffre is later killed by SMERSH and Bond is left rather the worse for wear - tied to a chair without a seat. Prehaps Mathis retrived the Beretta from French Authorities.

2) "Live and Let Die", Bond's Beretta was secured under his wetsuit for the swim to the Isle of Surprise. Bond is captured, and the Beretta is stripped from him, most likely it was left in Bloody Morgan's cave, and hopefuly retrived before the salt water bath rusted it to a smelly cob.

3) "Moonraker", We know the Beretta was forever lost when Sir Hugo Drax pocketed it after the damp handed Krebs unleashed a flood of newsprint rolls causing Bond to (again) crash his Bentley. Drax still had the Beretta in his pocket when he made a rather explosive visit to "Davy Jones Locker". At the end of the novel M provides Bond with both a new Beretta and a new Long Barreled Colt. Bond takes the shiney new Beretta with him on his holiday in France. "Moonraker" takes place in May 1953.

4) "Diamonds Are Forever", Bond uses the silenced Beretta to kill Wint and Kidd in cabin A49 on the QE. Bond then stages a murder/suicide with the Beretta carefully placed in Wint's hand. It seems unlikely that Bond would ever be able to get this Beretta back from the authorities without revealing his involvement with the two men. This occurs in August 1953

5) The Beretta is finally confiscated by M at the beginning of Dr. No in March 1956.

For a Beretta to be a candidate for a "Bond Gun" it could have been made anytime from 1941 to 1953.

With respect to the Walther PPK, Bond could have been issued a WW2 vintage pistol, there were plenty confiscated by the allies after the war. I would say that since he recieved a "new" Smith & Wesson, the Centennial model being only three years old at the time, it is likely his PPK was a new commerical model. I believe that both French and German marked PPK's were available in 1956. It is important to note that after WW2 ALL PP and PPK pistols started life at the Manurhin factory and differed only in their markings. So Bond could have had either a French or German marked PPK.

We do know for sure that Bond loses his PPK chasing Blofeld at the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", so the PPK was replaced at least once in January 1962. Again since the French and German marked pistols were available at the same time Bond could have either.

If it helps, we know that Geoffrey Boothroyd owned a Walther PPK in .22 caliber that was German marked. Also, in the short film "The Guns of James Bond" which can be found on the "Dr. No" ultimate DVD, Boothroyd is using another German Marked PPK in .32 caliber, however this was most likely filmed in 1963 or 1964.

Jethro Gibbs

Unfortunately, there seems to be an error in the article regarding the Betetta with the sawn sight as Described in Diamonds Are Forever as Beretta DID produce a limited version of the .25 Beretta with an extended barrel where the foresight was attached. This would perhaps explain the confusion?

Jethro Gibbs

the article was ecvellent but might I point out that Beretta DID in fact produce a LONG BARRELLED version of the Beretta .25 where the fore sight was attached to this barrel? Might this not would prove Mr Fleming was correct when he described the long barrel with its sawn front sight?

7289

Jethro Gibbs,

The long barrel Beretta you are referring to is the Model 950, described in the article under the Chapter "Wild Surmises". The 950 was produced with a long 3" Barrel in both .25 ACP and .22 short chamberings. It is often mistaken for the Model 418.

Bond's Beretta - the Model 418, requires the front sight be mounted on the top front of the slide in order to dismount the barrel from the frame and slide. The 418 was never manufactured with a sight mounted on the barrel itself.

It was an easy mistake for Fleming to confuse the placement of the sight on the Beretta. Many small automatics that look very much like the Beretta were made with barrels that extended beyond the end of the slide. There is no record of Fleming ever owning a Beretta, so it is likely he was relying on memory when describing Bond's pistol.

Interestingly enough when Fleming designed the dust jacket for "From Russia with Love" his original intention was to have a .25 Beretta painted with a rose through the trigger guard. After alot of searching no Beretta could be located. Fleming ended up asking to use Geoffrey Boothroyd's customized Smith & Wesson, which was forwarded from Scotland to London and then to artist Richard Chopping for a spectacular protrait.

LLWIII

7289...
Thank you for the additional research. In my quest for authenticity you have provided some valuable insights. The two Bond weapons i currently own are really outside of Fleming. One, a limited edition MI6 engraved P99, and the other a Walther LP-53 used for promotional material. I have a PP which i purchased in the late 70's for personal use, and know that this model was actually used (perhaps mistakenly) in film. The sole US importer for Walther is Earl's repair service and Earl has been very helpful in providing information in attempting period acuracy - the only problem being a lack of records.
Thank you again!

7289

LLWIII,

You have made two great picks with the LP and MI6 P99, both are soaring in value!

Would love to see pictures!

Thanks

LLWIII

Here is a photo of some of my pistols...
there is the Walther P99 MI6, The Walther LP53, the SD Golden Gun and a Walther .25 caliber Model 9 that my Grandfather used to carry (it is my replacement until i can locate a suitable 418).

7289

That is indeed a very fine collection.

Thanks for the photos!!!

-{

LLWIII

Thank you for the compliment, but you my friend have the ultimate Beretta. Did you do the modifications and make the suppressor yourself?

7289

It was given to me as a gift by a retired CIA Agent, a nice fellow from Texas missing an arm ....

Nah! Really I have to confess I did it myself, though the faux silencer has gone through a lot of modifaction to get the final size and shape.

The poor Beretta, once "Bonded" up is not much of a pistol. Alot of keyholing at five or six feet and last time I shot it into a wood block the bullet bearly buried itself in the wood. Though it remains an excellent choice for "fictional" spies and villians.

Thanks, LLWIII

Walther PPK

Thank you for a grate read I always wondered if
the Berreta .25 from Fleming's books was a specific
model.

To answer your question from before, the short film The Guns Of James Bond which is on the UE DVD of Dr.No is from 1964, at the opening Sean Connery is seen at the Fort Knox set from Goldfinger.

KissyLover

Fantastic article...-{

Thankyou for your time in putting it together for our pleasure, I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it.

7289

Much appreciated!!!

LLWIII

Just found a Beretta 418 manufactured in 1941.
i will send you photos when in comes into the gunshop.
LW

7289

Excellent find!!!

I managed to scoop two 418's recently at good prices. One was in pretty good shape - about 90%, which is unusual as most examples I have seen are pretty "used". The second pistol falls into the "used" heap. Still they are neat little shooters.

Look forward to seeing the pictures of your Beretta, LLWIII !!!!!!!

Donald Grant

7289,

So, can we count on you for more Bond gun goodness in the form of an article. Perhaps an article about the guns in the continuation novels. Or how about the guns in the movies. We need your expert information.

DG

7289

DG,

Thanks for the nice words. I really enjoyed doing the article, and the good reviews have been encouraging.

I am indeed working up a couple of projects including a review of the gunfighting in the books and weaponry of the villians, not sure how quickly they will be finished. Someday I hope to run all of this together into a coffee table book version with lots of big colour pictures!

I think ASP9mm should take on the continuation novels ... I haven't read all of them and the last couple I did read ... well it was a long time aqo!

Movie weapons would be a pretty big challenge, as you would have too include attache cases, wrist darts, watch bombs and mini helicopters! I don't know if I am up for that one!!!

Thanks Again!