[stefanosg]

I am sure this has been discussed before, but over and over I have read that the Luger was replaced by the P38 for reasons of economy and ease of construction. Rather quickly I counted about 41 parts in a Luger to 51 parts in a P38(forgive me if I am off by a few either way). I suppose you could break down the magazines and add a few more, but thats nearly a wash anyway between the two. Having disassembled both I found the P38 to be a wee bit more difficult to reassemble. There just seems to be alot a small "inner" parts to deal with. I don't know anything about the machining of the parts. Is this where the difficulty lay? I also know that the Luger can be finicky when dirty, like say in a battle, and the P38 is not. This for me would be a larger motivator for a changeover. Maybe there was some political pressure or friends in high places that got Walther the contract for the new sidearm, its been know to happen even in this country(ie:Northrop F5 vs GenDyn F16). Anyway, I welcome any thoughts or facts regarding the changeover made by the Germans.