[Kyrie]

Hi Folks,


German commissioned officers were expected, but not required, to furnish their own sidearms. By the time of the Great War commissioned officers could, at their own discretion, chose to be issued a sidearm from their unitâ??s allocation of sidearms if all these sidearms had not already been issued. On ceremonial occasions and during some social events commissioned officers were required to attend â??under armsâ?, but the required arm could be a sword or ceremonial dagger. This continued until 1943 or â??44, when commissioned officers were required to attend ceremonial functions armed with a pistol.


Enlisted men were issued sidearms if their duties precluded carrying a rifle. Enlisted men who worked with crew serviced weapons (artillery and machine gun crews are examples), or were part of line-of-communication units (transport, messenger, and medical services are examples) would also be issued a sidearm.


Non commissioned officers might or might not be issued a sidearm, depending on their duties. Non-commissioned officers serving in provost or paymaster units would always be issued a sidearm. Non-commissioned officers serving in infantry units were generally not issued a sidearm - but this was largely determined by the commanding officer of the unit in question.


WWII, and the SS, comprises a special case. The SS (both the Waffen and the Allgemeine) were not under the control of the German Army until about 1943 (memory fails at the exact date). As the German Army did not control the SS, they refused to supply the SS - including issuing the SS arms. The SS had to make do with what they could beg, buy, borrow, or steal. This is why so many of the SS units (especially the Allgemeine SS) were found to be armed with sidearms from occupied territories (especially Belgium and Czechoslovakia). It was only after the Waffen SS was placed under the overall command of the German Army that the Waffen SS began drawing supplies from the German Army.


As we can see, the number of pistols actually produced far exceeds the apparent need for sidearms. But this is really an illusion - the reason for the production of all those pistols is combat losses of pistols. When the Post WWII German Army was being formed in the late 1950â??s they did a study on the average service life of a pistol. That average service life in WWII turned out to be 300 rounds. This is not to say pistols were found to be worn out after 300 rounds, but rather pistols tended to be lost, destroyed by enemy action, or captured after an average use of 300 rounds. Thatâ??s the reason for the enormous number of pistols produced - they were being lost or destroyed almost as fast as they could be made.


To put this into perspective, consider the P.38â??s recently imported from the CIS countries. Importation of these pistols began, in great volume, in 1993 and continues today - eight years later. All of these pistols were lost by the Third Reich Germany on the Eastern Front, and had to be replaced; which they were.


I hope this helps some.


Best regards,


Kyrie