WW1 Artillery Luger

[habicht]

Hello-I suppose the question is what do the markings signify and were they applied by the East German regime or simply sourced by them from ex Nazi stocks-I can't imagine them being used by the GDR with the vast stockpiles of Soviet and Nazi weapons of much more modern and more reliable design available-any one ever seen an East German MG 08/15 on the Berlin Wall?

The grip strap marking is a Volkspolizei property stamp for Berlin police with the roman numeral indicationg the district or precinct. Not only did the VOPO use Lugers after the war but they manufactured new barrels and parts for them. In 1963 the DDR actually had the newly named Thalmannwerk take a run at producing new P08's and P38's from scratch. Very, very few of these pistols were made before the project was dropped.

Lugers and P38's remained in police and military service in a number of European countries well into the 1960's.

[oradour]

For the casual observer of this thread, nothing to do with the above Luger of course....."The outbreak of the Great War saw the rapid expansion of marine forces into division size units. Drawing on Seebatallion reservists and conscripts, the naval infantry brigade under Generalmajor von Wiechmann grew into the first Marine Division; an additional Marine Division was formed in November 1914. These two divisions formed Marine-Korps-Flandern [Marine Corps Flanders] under Admiral Ludwig von Schröder (known in Germany as the "Lion of Flanders"). In early February 1917 a third Marine Division was organized thus giving the naval infantry corps a strength of 60-70,000 men. Marine units fought in 1914 at Tsingtao and Antwerp, in 1915 at Ypres, in 1916 on the Somme, in 1917 in Flanders and during the 1918 offensive battles in northern France."
Prost ! Steve.

[Richie B]

Jim

From what I have read here and elsewhere, I think the grip strap marking is for the Soviet sector of Berlin - sub divison XXI.

The East Germans certainly refurbished a lot of P08s - giving them re-finishes, new magazines, plastic grips and new property markings and issued them to the VoPos (Volkspolizei).

What is slightly confusing is why the rest of the pistol especially the barrel- as far as I can tell from the photos - has not been touched.

If you need a further opinion, I can suggest luger.gunboards (assuming I am allowed to mention it !)

Regards

Richie