Byf
 

Quick question...

What does BYF stand for? I think I understand correctly, that this was the designation Mauser gave indicating the military intent prior to WWII, no? However, what does it actually stand for?

Thanks,

Michael

It does not stand for anything, it simply was the designation given to mauser at that time.

If you look at holsters and other items, there are hundreds of designations if not thousands.


Ed

During the 1920s and 1930s Germany was subjected to the Treaty of Versailles, following WW1. This treaty forbade Germany to have anything more than just a basic military structure and severely limited the production of military equipment.

Rather than put up with it, Germany introduced a coding system which allowed manufacturers to produce their equipment under disguise. When Germany started ignoring the treaty after 1934, the coding system was retained and expanded in order to camoflage (and protect) the manufacturers by giving them basically meaningless codes, so that a product could not be traced back to a manufacturer to easily. In 1934 and 1935 the production dates were also still coded with letters (G and K), a system which had been in use during the years before as well. This coding system was dropped in 1936, when the 'S' was the planned year code.

Mauser worked under the codes S/42, 42, Byf and SVW.

A very good book on the subject has been written by Michael Heidler ("Deutsche Fertigungskennzeichen"), which is published in 2 languages, German and English.

Here is one of a number of resources on the net for tracing various german production codes:

http://home.scarlet.be/p.colmant/german-codes.htm

Vlim...I looked for the book by Michael Heidler, and it is not available on Amazon or on e-bay at this time. I'll keep my eyes open.

Any other suggested reading for a history lesson on these guns. I have Ed's books, Lugers at Random, and Simson Lugers currently.

Always interested in further reading....

Thanks,


Michael