Fleming responded to Boothroyd a week later and advised that Bond would indeed be rearmed. Boothroyd followed up by sending Fleming a series of photos of guns and holsters for Fleming's information. Boothroyd was a strong revolver proponent and a very good revolver shooter in his own right--even to the point that he gave demonstrations of his shooting prowess.

What many may not realize is that the original cover of "From Russia with Love" displayed a Smith & Wesson revolver that had been modified to Boothroyd's specifications, and he received an autographed copy from Fleiming with the inscription "To Geoffrey Boothroyd, herewith appointed Armorer to James Bond."

At 6.2 inches long and just an inch wide, the PPS is a superb carry gun, especially in a holster designed for it like this DeSantis Speed Scabbard.

Maj. Boothroyd actually appears in the book Dr. No as "The Armorer" and rearms Bond against his will with a 7.65mm PPK and an S&W Centennial Airweight in .38 Special--a gun that was lost in the sands of Crab Key, never to be seen again.

Fleming's instincts led him to believe that the Walther would be a better fit for Bond, and it turned out that he was right as the Walther PPK became 007's trademark and gave the company an incredible public relations boost.

In the Bond films "Octopussy" and "Never Say Never Again," Bond was equipped with an updated Walther, the 9mm P5. Boothroyd commented in his Handgunner article that "Ian Fleming would have liked its looks."

As I tested the newest generation of defensive pistol from Walther--the PPS--I could not help but wonder what Boothroyd and Fleming would have thought of it. PPS stands for Police Pistol Slim, and it's a compact, polymer-frame semiauto available in both 9mm and .40 S&W--a serious step up in power from Walther's earlier hideout handguns.

The PPS is similar in size to the PPK and owes its low weight to a polymer-frame construction. Depending on which magazine is used, the 9mm version comes with a capacity of six, seven or eight rounds, with the .40 offering one less round for each.

Like its big brother, the Walther P99, the PPS uses a pre-cocked, striker-fired system that reduces the number of parts used in its construction, making the gun simpler and easier to disassemble and maintain.

An interesting feature of the PPS is that removing the backstrap renders the pistol inoperable for safe storage while also offering a different grip configuration for larger or smaller hands. When field stripping the PPS, Walther recommends removing the backstrap instead of pressing the trigger to release the action before removing the slide, which would certainly eliminate any unintentional discharges of the pistol.