Hello friends,
I am very pleased to share with you my happiness concerning the rig I have just completed. Since a couple of years I am concentrating my interest in the early post WWII Mauser production, it means the Parabellum made by Mauser starting from May 1945 until 1947.
This production, indicated as â??Parabellum produced under French controlâ?, represents the last effort made by Mauser in the Parabellum area, before the destruction of the facility started in 1948. In those years, the Mauser management was still trying to convince the French to avoid the complete destruction of the firm, but we know now that this effort was useless. This historical period and the successive rebuild of the company with the new Parabellum production started in 1969 is really the object of my research.
Coming back to the â??Parabellum made under French controlâ?; all these pistols have been produced mainly for the French army and used successively in the Indochina and Alger war. The LP08 were not used on the field but mainly produced on demand or for VIP people visiting the firm. It seems also that the Spahis (camel riding troops) acting as personal protection guards for General Pierre Koenig (1898 â?? 1970), supreme commander and military governor of the French zone in post war Germany, were used to use the LP08 during official ceremony. The last to use the P08 was the Gendarmerie until 1950. It seems that the P08 were collected in the depot until 1970.
So far, five variations have been classified by the collectors. These two pistols belong to the second variation that is considered the rarest one and it the one more intriguing me. The second variation is characterized by the â??starâ? proof mark and usually are indicated by the collectors as â???©toile modelâ? (?©toile = star in French).
Just to clarify the amount of the production: in the 1945-46 around 2600 Parabellum were produced. The production was continued in 1947 and maybe also in France. The French used the star only for around 300 pistols with the serial number ranging in 200 â?? 499 (the number 500 belongs already to the third variation). Only four LP08 (260, 400, 450, 456) are reported in the second variation and ten in total.
The total number should be not greater that 4000 pistols. In the 1950, the French Army printed out 5000 P08 manuals to cover the need of the gunsmith in Indochina. You can see the only one today reported as background in some of the below pictures.
The rig is composed by a P08 with two matching magazines and the related holster (rare to see as well). The LP08, in really new condition, has one magazine matching and the spare one different only for a few numbers and the related nice holster with special attach for the USA model belt used by the French at that epoch.
This rig is one of the most complete I have seen and most probably share this with another rig in France where the LP08 has the stock but no the holster (see the picture of the other rig). As background of the pictures I have used the 1950 French P08 manual (one of the 5000 printed out and the only one I have seen) and a 1948 official document from the French headquarter in Baden-Baden.
Hope you appreciate.
Have fun,
Mauro
And now the other rig with the stock. Note that one of the P08 is the one in my collection now:
