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Brandon · 07-30-2002, 07:23 PM

Johnny,
Jan Still reports in "Imperial Lugers" "that most Spandau Lugers bear the Crown/RC revisions-commission stamp", "Which indicates a serviceable Luger that has failed inspection because of non critical tolerances or external flaws. The Crown/RC stamp approved the Luger for service and absolved the inspectors from blame if the Luger subsequently failed"

I have peiced together a theory, Although it probably holds no merit I will share it anyway!

My theory is that since most Spandau Lugers are 1918 dated, in 1918 it must have been clear that the war was all but lost for Germany! They were surely in desparate need of supplies! Also you must remember that both DWM and Erfurt Lugers were tested and inspected for military use by inspectors in the Spandau factory! This was quite possibly where rejected pieces were held and/or destroyed. Going back to the desparate situation of Germany in 1918, it most likely seemed that, if a Luger failed the military inspection the smart thing to do would be to class failed Lugers as "fixer-upers" instead of them being junked! So they set aside a small number (Still estimates production to be 200) of failed Lugers to try this process, and upon completion it was determined that new Lugers could be made at about the same rate of speed (Or some other reason) and as an end result, The completed Lugers were pressed into service but, idea was scraped and the tooling destroyed!

Does that sound reasonable? As for all reported examples being in found in the U.S. Maybe it's a coincidence maybe it's not? I guess that some parts of the Spandau mystery will never be revealed!

Brandon...

07-30-2002, 07:23 PM	#6
Brandon User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Tennessee, USA Posts: 329 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Johnny, Jan Still reports in "Imperial Lugers" "that most Spandau Lugers bear the Crown/RC revisions-commission stamp", "Which indicates a serviceable Luger that has failed inspection because of non critical tolerances or external flaws. The Crown/RC stamp approved the Luger for service and absolved the inspectors from blame if the Luger subsequently failed" I have peiced together a theory, Although it probably holds no merit I will share it anyway! My theory is that since most Spandau Lugers are 1918 dated, in 1918 it must have been clear that the war was all but lost for Germany! They were surely in desparate need of supplies! Also you must remember that both DWM and Erfurt Lugers were tested and inspected for military use by inspectors in the Spandau factory! This was quite possibly where rejected pieces were held and/or destroyed. Going back to the desparate situation of Germany in 1918, it most likely seemed that, if a Luger failed the military inspection the smart thing to do would be to class failed Lugers as "fixer-upers" instead of them being junked! So they set aside a small number (Still estimates production to be 200) of failed Lugers to try this process, and upon completion it was determined that new Lugers could be made at about the same rate of speed (Or some other reason) and as an end result, The completed Lugers were pressed into service but, idea was scraped and the tooling destroyed! Does that sound reasonable? As for all reported examples being in found in the U.S. Maybe it's a coincidence maybe it's not? I guess that some parts of the Spandau mystery will never be revealed! Brandon...