[m1903a3]

My dad was in the infantry in the Pacific theater for the entire war. His introduction came with the sinking of his troopship near Guadalcanal in February 42, and he was practicing for the invasion of the Japanese home islands when they finally surrendered.

When I was a kid, the first two guns I learned to shoot had both been used to shoot my father. The first was a Nambu pistol he got off the body of a Japanese major near Munda Field. Dad's wound was just a scratch, barely enough for the Purple Heart, but he shot the major with his Thompson, getting both the Nambu and a sword. The second was a Type 99 rifle he got in the Phillipines. That put him in a field hospital and he earned a second Purple Heart, but not a trip home. His sergeant shot the soldier with the rifle, picked it up and gave it to Dad.
When the war ended they had a short layover occupying Japan then shipped home. He was an officer, so he was able to ship both the guns, plus ammunition, the sword and some other souvinier, back to the states. He tried to ship his Thompson back, but it was confiscated.

I still have the sword, a book the major was carrying, a battle flag, and the Type 99's bayonet. Dad stayed in the military, and gave both the Nambu and the rifle to his former sergeant when we were shipped overseas to Japan in '59. He did keep his 1911a1 the whole time, and I still have that.

Dad never said anything about how he came to have the two guns, or much else about the war. It was the sergeant who told me where they came from some years later when he was visiting us.

<Official Luger content:>
My mother-in-law has a unit marked 1916 dated DWM P08 brought back from the ETO by my father-in-law. Since he was part of the 8th Air Force in England, we can only assume he traded for it or bought it.