BYF 42 ?
 

During 1942 where or to who were most Lugers issued too? My Luger is a BYF 42, 599K. My Luger came from a friend of my father in-law. When he died he left it to my father in-law, then he gave it to me for Christmas some years ago.Luger is in great shape with no pits or rust or dings. All numbers match. Looks like my Luger never saw any hard service.

As a general rule, Lugers were issued to army units, but they also went to the Luftwaffe and navy, in short, to anyone who was issued a full size pistol. P.08's (Lugers) and P.38's were issued indiscriminately. Pistol carriers were higher ranking NCO's, junior officers, machine gunners and assistant machine gunners, and other soldiers whose duties precluded carrying anything bigger. High ranking officers usually carried smaller pistols, in a bewildering variety.

In any modern war, the pistol plays a pretty small role, so few of them are actually fired extensively. Further, the German issue holsters were excellent at protecting the weapon so again, good condition pistols are pretty common.

Jim