British intelligence report on Mauser, 1945.
 

Hi,

Recently got my hands on a British intelligence report, written in may, 1945 by a group of officials who did a thorough inventory of the Mauser site at Oberndorf am Neckar and a train with Mauser staff, documentation, materials, parts and products which was captured just before the Austrian border.

Although the report mainly focuses on aircraft machinegun technology and piezo-electric ammunition ignition techniques, there are some interesting references to pistol production.

The following page shows an overview of the 1935-1945 weapons output of Mauser in Oberndorf. Sadly, the 9mm pistols are not shown as either P08 or P38, but they are thrown on the same pile.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...1945_small.jpg

Another interesting story was the appearant problem of looting. All important documentation had been transferred to microfilm by Mauser. This microfilm archive was taken by the French. Boxes with materials (guns, parts, etc..) were shipped to the US depot in Paris by the British investigators, where they were looted by US military staff.

I guess it explains how certain collectibles from the Mauser archives made it to the US :)

Gerben,

Great info...

Regarding US Military looters...do you think that possible...???;)

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/gi.jpg

Pete,

Naah :D

Some further reading shows that the above report was drawn up by Dr. Ing. Kurt Fleck, one of the Mauser managers and chief of production.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/kurt_fleck.jpg

Interesting document Gerben.
Concerning the Mauser documentation available in France, about two years ago I kept in touch with the DGA - Direction General de l'Armement to figure out if these documents are available for analysis.
DGA replied that these documents are not classified so far, therefore there is not an organized archive.

The only information about the Mauser production under French control are mainly based on studies of serious French guns enthusiasts.

In my web site, if you click the link LP08 made under French control, you can find a receipt released by the French authorities to the Major Sutternin.

With this receipt, the Major Sutternin received a P08 for 350 Francs.
The receipt is dated Oberndorf 7th December 1945

Ciao
Mauro
:typing:

I would imagine that all 9mm production after 1942 was P38. An interesting jump in "sporting rifle" production in 1944, are these sniper rifles?

George,

About the 9mm, I agree. Interesting observation about the 'sporting rifles'. I guess at that time they used anything that could shoot. They were probably a combination of small calibre training rifles and large caliber hunting rifles.

Another part of the report shows some rough info about the 9mm Volkspistole Mauser was working on. A blowback design, constructed out of cheap sheet metal stampings. This never left the design stage.

I George,
Mauser produced P08 and LP08 again under French control starting from 1945 until 1947. These guns were mainly used by Army and Gendarmerie.

I have several photos of these P08 and LP08 and some are available on my web site.

Ciao
Mauro

Well,

Certainly the French cleaned up after they left. In 1948, both the weapons production facilities in Oberndorf am Neckar and those in Berlin were destroyed.