Look, I'm an old Navy pilot so I meant no disrespect to WG Gibson. His record of bravery was incredible. It's just that the thread was hijacked on me and I wanted to get it back on subject.
The holster with its non-standard P-38 pistol resident is back in my father's closet where I hope it stays for some time. He was happy to hear some of the details about it and told me how he came up with it.
Turns out, he was a driver for a battalion Lt. Col and when they rounded up a bunch of prisoners near the end of the war, he was the only one around who knew German well. (Actually he spoke a Swiss dialect and could understand the prisoners more than they could understand him, but since he was the custodian, that didn't matter too much :-)
He was able to get some good info out of them and the Colonel told him to help himself to whatever he wanted from the contraband. So he picked out the P-38 (probably the worst choice he could have made as it was a very late made one and has rather poor workmanship) and the holster. They were not together at the time so he didn't know they were mismatched. But then, he was just a cheesemaker drafted late in the war and wasn't much up on Lugers and Walthers. Just wanted the war to get over so he could get back to his wife and baby daughter.
Thanks again for shedding light on the holster for me. I love history and enjoy finding out the little things.
__________________
Pukin Dog
|