Well, guys, I did a long post, including the full provenance of my Dutch Luger, and when I went to preview it, I found that all was lost. Something had timed out and there was no way to backtrack or recover any of it. I've seen that before here. Somebody might want to reconsider a couple of the software settings. It started to happen a second time, just when I tried to post and preview this shorty, but I managed not to lose it.
So being afraid of it happening again, I'll just do the summary version, unless or until I'm sure I won't lose everything I write.
Postino, I'll try to get to the pics, but right now, I'm up to my ears in alligators.
John, I appreciate those urls, and I'm already somewhat familiar with them, though not an active participant in the forums. I'm a basement machine shop junkie.
Vlim, I've immensely enjoyed your posts, and especially the article you wrote for NVBMB. Thus I set out to tell my own Dutch Luger story in detail...until it got wiped out.
The summary: Mine was captured when the Japanese invaded Indonesia in 1942. It was never marked by them, unlike some others. This one was personally captured from the commander of a small Japanese coast watch outpost bewteen 1943 and 1945, without a shot having been fired. I have lots of detail on all this. The Indonesian guerilla fighter who led the band later fought in the postwar independence movement, became an officer in the Indonesian Army, and eventually worked closely with me. In the 30 years or so during which he carried this Luger, he killed eleven people with it. For awhile, it was loaned to me and I carried it "for serious", but never had to match his record. I could write quite a screen play about this particular pistol and the few people who have carried it. And the story is solidly verified.
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