[Ron Smith]

"Is it a fact that often when a German was about to be taken prisoner, he would remove the take-down lever from his Luger and toss it?"

I suppose that this could have happened once in a while, but I don't think it was very common. In fact many officers offered their side arms to the commander of the opposing force as a sign of surrender.

This is not to say that all Lugers were captured from officers, to the contrary, most were captured from enlisted men or police officers.