Help Identifying MP40 Marking
 

A French collector sent this to a friend; THe gun is a very early transitional MP40. Can anybody ID the "sunburst" mark?
Thanks.
Hi Doug,

The mark does not look to me to be the same vintage as the other marks near it. Could this be an East German mark? Perhaps VOPO in origin?

John,

I was thinking along the same lines. Could it possibly be an early Manurhin works stamp? (Thus the "M W")?
Maybe taken into French Service after WW2?

Do you know the source of this gun? Was it a WW2 souvenier? or something sold after the war? Is it now in collector hands? I didn't know that France permitted machinepistole collectibles...

MW? could really be anything? Mauser Werke?

Manhurin? I don't know that the W would stand for Werke or works in France...

Anyone else seen this mark before?

I suppose it could also be the mark of a post war arms dealer company...

I don't know anything about the gun's background, (I will try to ask but this is third hand). I do, however, detect what appears to be an unsightly weld mark on the barrel nut, (left in photo) so my assumption is that this gun is somehow demilled to accepted French standards.

From a Friend who commented on another site:


"From his own site there is a clue. MW in a circle may be Merz Werke.
The production specialist that help Erma and Haenel increase production.
What is the Waffennamt code? I can't read it on the pic. A44 is Merz Werke"

I suppose this is plausible

Mystery Solved! Merz Werke it is!! Merz Werke was hired by Erma to improve the production process, (transition of MP38 to MP40). They were experts in stamped steel production processes. Their main business was making typewriters. See the photo of a 1932 Merz Typewriter. The symbol is the same. So this is a wartime stamping. I wonder where else it may turn up in wartime productions?

From mystery to problem solved in just one day! Great job guys!