Tom,
I have had the privilege and the honor of speaking by phone to Don Hallock and by email with Joop van de Kant about my Mauser banner that is crown U proofed and came out of the Manuser factory in Orbendorf. If you have had the occasion of reading the article in their book that starts on page 593, you will agree that this is a very interesting and informative article. When the French army occupied the Mauser factory, the army allowed the German workers to continue working until they are sent home days later. At that point the French solders took over the assembly of weapons only from existing parts left over in the factory. NO new parts were manufactured. This continued until all the parts were exhausted. However that was supposed to be with serial number 3000 in the Luger production. Mine is 3286. It is my understanding that when the proof man was called in to stamp the assembled weapons he notice mine had already been stamped with crown U stamp years before so no need to proof it again. THAT begs the question: how many more parts were still in the factory or in route to the factory. I think it completely feasible to state there were probable "buckets" of various parts in the factory. This probably made for easy picking when the US troops arrived.
Or, there was a train loaded with parts and machinery that was removed from the factory in Orbendorf in route to the small town of Kufstein in southeast Germany. The train was attacked during a air raid which destroyed several rail cars. When the train eventually arrived in Kufstein, it was discovered that the factory they are supposed to deliver these parts did not exist. They were then order to proceed to a fully staffed factory in Ozal Austria. When they arrived they found the factory was still under construction. At that point the train and all the contents were seized by the US Army. So here again it highly possible that Mauser parts were easy picking by the US troops. Much of this is from Don and Joops book, so many thanks to them for the information.
Mike
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