1941 Holster maker
 

Last week I "aquired" a very nice Luger holster dated 1941 with the inspectors mark WA 195 with the eagle over the swastika.
The makers code is epf over 1941.
It had a magazine and original stripping tool but unfortuatly no gun.
The nice gentleman who sold it to me obtained it from an old returned serviceman who captured the rig in Italy in WW2. Unfortunately, as the ship bringing back to New Zealand reached home, they were ordered to throw the guns overboard, which they mostly did but in this case the holster survived.
Does any one know the maker code.
By the way, my 41 byf black widow looks great in it.
regards
Murray.

Murray, your WAa code 195 is that of Friedrich Offerman & Soehne, Bensberg, Germany. Unfortunately epf is listed as unknown in my reference.

(EPF) Could be Karl Bocker of Waldbrol.
From Walter's book.

Also see Bender's "Luger Holsters & Accessories" page 207. epf was Karl Bocker Lederwarenfabrik located in Waldbrol...

Waldbr�¶l (Waldbroel) and Bensberg are pretty close together, so the same WaA has been in use for both, as well as for a company in Cologne which is again in the same area.
I find EPF for Karl B�¶cker, Waldbr�¶l; The code for Offermann, Bensberg I find as DKK.
Juergen

Thanks for the additional info JeurgenG... the knowledge available from the membership on this site never ceases to amaze me! [img]smile.gif[/img]

BTW, do you have an umlaut key on your keyboard? If not, how do you produce a vowel with an umlaut while replying on the forum?

The only way I can figure to do it is to type the reply in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste it here... [img]confused.gif[/img]

J�¶hn, this was p�¶st�«d �¶n the f�¶r�ºm By Sid Gariss on 7/26/02, topic Umlauts and other accented letters. Do a search, you'll find it there.

According to my source, Karl Bocker Lederwarenfabrik is the code for eqf, not epf. Here is the link:

http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/codes_full.html

Also, Karl Bocker is listed as being in “Waldbroehl” Rheinland. The code epf is for: Interessengemeinschaft fuer Bergbau u. Huettenbetrieb AG, Betriebsgruppe Bismarckhuette, Huettenwerk Falvahuette in Schwientochlowitz, Kreis Kattowitz, later 'Koenigs- u. Bismarckhuette A G'.

My speculation here would be that maybe the code was handed down to successive owners or Mom and Pop operations during the war.

The code dkk is indeed listed as belonging to: Friedrich Offermann u. Soehne, Lederwarenfabrik, Bensberg.

@John Sabato
"Umlaut" is no problem for me as I'm using a German keyboard. Should be this way being a German living in Germany.

Back to codes, here are some more finds:
Karl B�¶cker, Waldbr�¶l
eqf, WaA 387, 1936
eqf, WaA 727, 1941
epf, WaA 195, 1941-42
epf, WaA 195, 1944
That confirms Heyrich's find as well as others.

eph I find as "K�¶nigs- und Bismarckh�¼tte" Rybnik/Poland for gas mask containers in 1944.
Makes sense somehow as the containers were made of tin and "-h�¼tte" is used for companies producing/processing metals.
Schwientochlowitz I find as a prisoner working camp in Oberschlesien, German speaking part in western Poland. Could well be that K�¶nigs- und Bismarckh�¼tte "subcontracted" to the camp.
J�¼rgen

Many thanks Guys for a wealth of good information.
I would have to agree with you John, this forum never ceases to amaze me with the really intelligent information.
By the way,
Have a look at my next subject on the Navy holster.
Regards
Murray.