When it comes to historical accuracy, soldiers in World War II were trained to shoot pistols with one hand, not two. The two-handed shooting style we often see today actually became popular much later.
What we see now is based on the Weaver Position, developed by Jack Weaver in the late 1950s during pistol competitions in Southern California. It wasn’t widely used until after that period. But during World War II, soldiers and police were trained with two main one-handed shooting styles: the bullseye position and the point-shooting position.
The Bullseye Stance
In the bullseye stance, the soldier stands tall, grips the pistol firmly, and extends their shooting arm fully straight to aim at their target. This was generally used for shooting at moderate distances, but the drawback was that it wasn't very mobile for close-range combat.
The Point-Shooting Stance
The second style, point-shooting, is more flexible. In this stance, soldiers would stand in a crouched or semi-crouched position, often without aiming directly down the sights until they were ready to fire. This was useful for shooting on the move, making it ideal for quick combat situations, especially for regular soldiers in the field.
Here’s a training video from the era demonstrating how the point-shooting technique worked. It gives a great insight into how soldiers were trained during the war.
Here’s why they stuck to the one-handed style:
Old-School Training: Soldiers in WWII were trained to use pistols with one hand because that’s how it had always been done. The pistol was a last resort, not the star of the show. The idea was to pull it out, shoot, and move. No fancy techniques—just survival.
Keep It Moving: Imagine being in the chaos of battle. You need to stay mobile, ducking behind cover and sprinting across open ground. Holding a pistol with one hand let soldiers stay fast and flexible. Two hands? That would just slow them down when they needed to move.
Freeing Up the Other Hand: That free hand wasn’t just there for fun. Soldiers had to carry gear, climb obstacles, or even fight hand-to-hand. One hand on the pistol meant the other hand was ready to do whatever else needed doing—like tossing a grenade or pulling someone to safety.
Quick and Dirty: In the heat of battle, soldiers needed to draw and fire quickly. The point-shooting technique (basically shooting without carefully aiming) allowed them to react fast. No time for lining up perfect shots like today’s sharpshooters—just get the job done and survive.
It wasn’t until after WWII that the two-handed shooting style (like the Weaver Stance) started to catch on, and soldiers began getting trained to aim more carefully with both hands.
