Need Help Id'ing Luger

[Edward Tinker]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">what does the swastika represent on the side? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">The swastika's are proof and acceptance marks, this gun was made around the time frame that the Nazi's were in power, so the proof is their's, and shows it was accepted into service.

It seems like it is an easy thing to "lose" the sideplate and be mis-matched. Many theories abound on this, the most likely, is that when US forces captured a Luger, it was believed to make the gun incapable of firing and was taken off, stuck in a pocket or something and when replaced and Bob the GI had more than one in their pocket, it was just put back on.

Other therories are that it was mistakenly changed by an armorer or a GI when they took them apart and were cleaning them, the GI might be German or Allied.

Ed