Unusual marking
 

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Patrice,

That's a confusing one. It must not have been marking to regulation. Or has yet to have been identified. Are the letters all capitals?

Ron

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Patrice,

I have been trying to figure this out. This is my guess at the translation of the marking.

P=Pioneer (Engineer)

A=Abteilung (detachment)

L=Luftschiffer(Airship operators or crews) or possibly Landwehr.

II= 2nd Armeekorps

416= weapon number

This is a bit of a stretch, but is feasible, as Pioneer units were attached to nearly every unit including the Cavalry. They were combat engineers and were needed to construct everything from bridges to aircraft hangars to barracks.

This is, as I said, my best guess given the markings as they are. I don't believe that it is a police unit.

Ron

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Patrice,

This seems to be my day for differing with Ron. I have in my database an apparently undated Erfurt #6776 with the grip strap mark "P.A.L.II.362." where all the letters and numbers are the same height. I'm leaning toward these being police and the "P.A." perhaps standing for Polizei Amt (Police Bureau).

Here is a link to a Dreyse marked P.A.CH.235 where the C is smaller than the other characters: http://www.gunboards.com/luger/topic...hTerms=Dreyse. This was tentatively identified as from Chemnitz in Saxony. If this is correct, there's a good chance the L. stands for Leipzig.

I will be very interested in seeing a photo of the mark and in learning the frame serial number of this gun for my database.