'38 Mauser w/ bringback papers from Europe & Korea
 

Afternoon, gents.
I have something here that I hope you'll find as interesting as I do, and I welcome any questions or comments about it.

About 6 months ago I picked up a '38 p08 with multiple capture papers from both the European theater in WW2 and the Korean War. I'm guessing Mr. Cordes was smitten enough with the Luger after his time in Europe that he was compelled to carry it through Korea as his personal sidearm. Who knows?

Looking at the paperwork, one thing you'll notice is that one of the documents is clearing him to take home two pistols, Luger #4768 and CZ #105111, but unfortunately you'll only see one of these pistols in my post. So please, check out your cz27s in case the serials match up. It's my life's mission to find that CZ and reunite it with the Luger. They belong together.

I've yet to find much pertinent info about the life & service of Mr. Cordes. That will come in time. Thankfully I have a good friend, also a member here, who's enlightened me on some of the popular avenues to take in order to find out more about Mr. Cordes, who, if you ask me, must've been one hell of a tough American for not only serving in, but surviving two major wars. I'd love to be able to find him, or at least his kin, and thank him/them for his services.

Here is the hardware. Just a good ol' 38 with some muzzle wear, freckling on the straps, and typical high edge wear, but otherwise healthy blue. It appears all matching but I will not be disassembling it. On the topic of disassembly, it does look like somebody had no idea how to break down a p08, you can see what I think are blade screwdriver or vise marks by the sideplate. Terrible. Despite that marring, it's still a beautiful Luger:
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1mozmez6.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0vqrk9ii.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pscwqvrmbm.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pszhgvo876.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pscbgll28u.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8drf0hhi.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pslgfs3me0.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psad8jm7sa.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1mozmez6.jpg


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Now for the fun stuff, the documents. My favorite quirk about the papers is that one of them is made from a scrapped topographical map of...Japan I believe?

Lastly, one thing that will forever stick in my memory is when the aforementioned friend of mine came over to inspect the Luger & documents. We spent about 90 minutes going through all of the minutiae found in the capture papers. Then we realized he had yet to see the Luger itself. We only spent about 3 minutes handling the pistol and the quick conclusion reached was 'yep, it's a nice p08.' Just goes to show what kind of life documents can breathe into an historic artifact, to the point where it's the paperwork, rather than the artifact itself, that becomes the main attraction.


http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pszavneakx.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psoembgsor.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psdzmw3v02.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psvmjcpvjq.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psleluujag.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psvehozpxz.jpg
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...ps03os2oms.jpg
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http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pskob16yjl.jpg

I've had the pleasure of examining this in person, and I must say it's the most incredible documented bring back I have seen. Korean War papers are rare, a pistol from two wars? Incredible.