Post war Mauser question
 

Guess I managed to put this in the wrong place the first time. Any way, the questions is:

I have heard stories of Mauser assembling Lugers from parts for the French in the period immediately after the war. Any body know anything about this?

Dear unspellable,
April the 20 1945, the first French soldier occupied the Oberndorf city. The Mauser firm started to produce Parabellum under French control.
According to August Weiss, responsable of Mauser gun and pistol production up to 1945, in thsi period the following guns were produced:
47696 K98 carabines,
6375 .22lr carabines,
3500 P38,
20000 HsC pistols,
2560 Parabellum

A little number of LP08 was made and give as a gift to important army officiers.

In my book concerning Luger Artillery history I wrote a section concerning this rare item.

In the picture, from "La gazette des armes", an interesting set of P08 and LP08.

I hope help you.

Ciao


http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/FrenchPara.jpg

Ciao Mauro!

What a great photograph of these French Luger examples!

I can hardly wait for your book to be printed.

How do we identify the post war assembly French Mausers? As oppoosed to other Mausers manufactured near the end of production in June 1942? What calibers were the French Mausers made in? Do They bear any German military type markings?

It is possible to find "French" P08 with or w/o date on the chamber. Usually the military marks are not present. On the right site a star is present with 3 digits. It is possible to find, also, a eagle/N insted of the star. There are some other little differences. Usually all pistol parts are black. The quality is not so good.
These pistol were used by French army and "Gendarmerie" (Military police) up to 1960.
The caliber is 9mm.
I tried to contact Army archives in order to have some documents for my book but the answer was that this archive are not maintained so it was very difficult to find documentation (!!!).
The picture presented here is fro "La gazette des armes".
Let me know if you need some other info.
Ciao


http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/FrenchPara1.jpg