Erfurt Artillery with Australian Department of Defence stamp
 

An Erfurt Art Luger (1914) has come into my possession that has the "D /|\ D" mark of the Australian Department of Defence WW2 era stamp. There is reference in War diaries to "Irregular Units" requesting Lugers that were known to be in DoD armouries in Australia for use in the Pacific.
Like to know any more about that, whether they were actually issued for OS units, and whether the item was a WW1 trophy or perhaps part of reparations under the Versailles Treaty.

It sure has seen some history!

Thanks all

Congratulations, that is a nice luger.
Interestingly, while researching the Dutch East-Indies Lugers I came across some information about the Northern Australian Observer Unit (2/1 NAOU) which was issued with lugers during WW2, largely due to a shortage of service revolvers that were required for OS service.

These were originally believed to be captured German Lugers; however, the source stated these could have been DWM or Vickers contract Luger’s from the Dutch East-Indies, which to avoid them falling into the hands of the Japanese, were transferred to Australia when the Dutch East-Indies fell.

Your luger goes back to the captured German luger theory.

Another theory could be, similar to what happened in Britain in 1940, with the shortage of weapons, anything that the War Office could lay its hands on, was put into service. These could include weapons that had been brought back from WW1 as souvenirs and museum pieces. The same situation, although not as dire as Britain in 1940, could have arisen in Australia, no doubt many Australian veterans took souvenirs home from WW1.

On file, I have one photo of a Luger in service in 1941 with the British Special Service Brigade.

What a great picture rpbcps.

The fellow in front looks as if he would invite you for tea with his LP08 complete with snail drum.
While the fellow in back looks as if he would drop every last one who accepted.

Thanks :)

Looks can be deceiving, :burnout: Indeed, I am sure Captain, later Brigadier, Gerald C S Montanaro DSO, was a very formidable fighter. People were not selected to serve in the early WW2 commando units, if they did not meet a certain criteria.

Last week I finished an interesting book, written by a veteran of these early commando units who later went on to fight with the British SOE in the Balkans, Poland and eventually the South Pacific in 1945. If anyone is interested in this period of history I strongly recommend 'No Colours or Crest' by Peter Kemp, recently published for the first time since 1958.

Thanks rpbcps. I also have a couple of photographs of WW2 participants with Lugers, one could be an Art luger. One is of a district medical officer in New Guinea before the war who was captured by the Japanese and died in captivity, the second is of an Australian Officer addressing men at a football match, and the third is of RAAF ground crew in north Africa before departing for Sicily.


There is an additional unusual marking that I cannot understand, looks like a badly applied 3 then the digits 1 and 7, or is it a crescent followed by 1 and 7.

Appreciate any thoughts