Re: P08 Holster Markings
First let me say that I am very puzzled by several aspects of the marking although I do appreciate your excellent photograph. Generally, any marking found on a German holster (assuming it was period applied, and I believe that this one was) is going to relate to either the manufacturer, the distributer (if comercial), the procuring organization or Service branch (ie. Navy, Luftwaffe, SA, SS etc...) gaining unit, or individual owner ( i.e hand applied initials, family crest, etc..). The most puzzling aspect of this marking is the small size and location. Of the possibilities listed above, I can only guess that this is a unit marking and was applied simply as a matter of local policy to denote property of the unit. The use of symbols rather than nomenclature for this purpose is somewhat irregular....but stranger things have been seen. I have a two set volume of books that were published in Germany about 15 years ago. These books document via the use of carefully rendered line drawings over 2000 WWII German military unit symbols (hence the lag in my response time!). After going through the symbols in these volumes (they cover Army, Navy Luftwaffe,SS, Police)from Army Group to Battlion level, I have found three that could represent what this symbol APPEARS to be. All three are Luftwaffe and two are for bomber squadrons and one is a costal patrol squadron. I can supply the names later if you are interested and the book gives a brief history of these units as well as every unit that has a symbol (about all of them) These three symbols all are single swords with stylized wing design incorporated into the hilt part of the sword symbol. Given that the holster is brown and in what appears to be nice condition, this would fit a possible Luftwaffe connection. One problem always to be considered in military equipment is that where something (or the unit which something belonged to) was not always where it stayed.
This is my best stab given what I have to work with, by the way most signal units had symbols based around lightning bolts (at least in the book). Hope it helps
|