Presumably an attempt to reduce the cost to manufacture the iconic handgun.
This one is also on display at the Springfield National Armory Historical Site.
this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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I've always wondered what the thinking behind this was. There were 1.8 million 1911A1s made during WW2. Given that the vast majority of military members aren't issued pistols and that pistols are used less which means less wear & tear on parts, it is difficult to imagine why nearly 2 million 1911A1s in service (plus however many of the 700,000 1911s that were still serviceable) would need to be augmented by a cost cutting version. Kind of seems like somebody was really excited to make a stamped pistol for the sake of showing off improved stamping technology. Given that this project never went anywhere apparently there also wasn't much interest outside of whoever was running the program.
The army was experimenting with bringing the weight down. The one in the picture is stamped sheet metal, but they also experimented with stamped aluminum. Only 30 were ever made. I don't think they ever planned to produce them in mass. Its a proof of concept.