[ichabod]

Usually, a buttstock cartouche indicating it's branch of use will be an "H" for "heer" (army), "K" for kriegsmarine (navy) and "L" for luftwaffe (air force). Believe it or not, the S.S. was on the bottom rung of the supply chain. The German Army High Command was very distrustful of the S.S. and supplied them only with Army castoff weapons. I have seen photos as late as 1940 of S.S. troops carrying Kar98bs ! A Kar98B is nothing more than a 29-inch-barreled WW1 Gewher98 with a tangent site instead of the Lange visier "roller coaster". The S.S. often resorted to carrying sidearms and rifles from conquered nations - the Polish VIS-35 9mm, Belgian Hi-Power and the Polish copy of the Kar98a Mauser . If the S.S. used this 1913 P.08, and it's very possible they did, I don't understand why they reproofed the chamber. Usually the Nazis accepted Hohenzollern , Weimar and even Hapsburg proofs unless the original caliber of the weapon was changed as in the case of some 1912 Steyr-Hahn pistols converted from 9mm Steyr to 9mm Luger.