Possible Kü Luger Origin Story

[mrerick]

John and John, we have steadily been trying to gain insight into the Kü Luger mysteries (in my case since I started collecting several years ago).

The background in the OKW / OKH at this time was that the severe infighting was just getting legs at this point in the war. "Stealing" staff from each other was part of the power politics being presided over by Hitler. Goering was good at playing the game, but the shortages of men and equipment at that point were severe and real.

The OKH / Army didn't get what they wanted (permanent reassignment of Luftwaffe troops) but they did get temporary help in Goering's formation of ten "Field Divisions". The requirement to arm them was immediate and completely new, and had to be outside OKH procurement or logistics planning. The choice of the Luger makes sense for newly minted field officers (as opposed to the more compact PP and PPK for flying officers).

We're pretty confident that Kü Lugers were built up in a higher level Luftwaffe armory. You can imagine the OKH leadership saying, "OK Goering, here are your pistols... All you have to do is put them together...".

We also can assume that they had to be marked to avoid confusion with Mauser manufactured guns that were warranted by Mauser. That would account for some kind of special marking.

Others here have discussed the likely identity of the Luftwaffe armory and it's relationship to the " Kü" marking.

In any case, the mystery continues...