Book Review History Writ in Steel: German Police Markings
 

Although I am not the best at writing a review, but here goes ;)

History Writ in Steel: German Police Markings 1900 -1936, by Don Maus, published by Brad Simpson Publishing, a division of Simpson Ltd. in Galesburg, Illinois.

Don has a good write up as a pre-sale here: http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=21477

My take on this book is very favorable, it is not just a book on luger police unit markings, it covers the history of police from the beginning of the 20th century until just after the nazi's took power. Besides the historical aspects, Don writes in a very readable fashion, explaining the units and how they came to be and how they changed.

One of the most important aspects to many collectors will be what I call his "cheat sheet" pages where he alphabetically has each unit marking that he is aware of and there must be hundreds of them. He has Landagerei, Kripo and Schutzpolizei and I am sure I misspelled those, but will have it down pat by the time I read it two or three times. These markings cover all types of guns owned by the police, not just lugers but any pistol that has markings and tell what the unit is, the city and type; rural, city, protection police etc.

All together, an important book for collectors, or anyone that would like more information on those elusive luger markings that have puzzled folks for years.

Thanks for the review. I think I will buy one.

Came across this unit and it's un-identified in Writ in Steel. I have found that G.Tr. on page 2 is a rural police indentifaction mark, where exactly, don't know. I found this rural police bayonet with G.Tr. 6920 on it's crossguard. Not much but it's something.

http://oakleafmilitaria.com/0710ew3.html