Part Three
I acquired this gun as a "rig": 1918 holster, takedown tool, two magazines.
Of course, a matching-date holster does not a 'rig' make. Holster "rigness" only comes about with an actual identity match provided by something like matching unit marks (down to the weapon number). Nonetheless, it makes a terrific ensemble.
The holster is 1918 dated, manufactured by Hans R�¶hmer GmbH & Co., Neu-Ulm stamped under the flap. This company made holsters for P-08 and LP-08 from 1915-1918, and was again engaged in Luger holster manufacture 1937-1941. R�¶hmer also made cartridge pouches, belts, map cases, and saddlery 1934-1945 (Walter, "The Luger Book"). The holster flap has illegible ink markings.
The leather of this holster is in good shape, but it has been repaired with rather more good intention than ability.
The takedown tool is marked with an Imperial inspector's stamp.
The magazine purportedly is matching, and indeed has the proper number, but close examination reveals that the spine-side face has been shaved or sanded, partially obliterating the letter suffix, spare magazine +, and inspector's stamp. It is extremely difficult to tell by eye, but the photo makes it fairly clear that the letter suffix is t.
Conclusions and questions
Two-date Lugers are extremely uncommon. In "Imperial Lugers" Jan Still presented 1917/18 Erfurt serial# 8825s (p. 78), noting that it was at that time (1991) the only one reported. Since then an Erfurt 1914/18, serial# 7872(probably no suffix) has surfaced quite recently (
http://www.gunboards.com/luger/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2297 ), and about a year and a half ago I saw a triple-date Erfurt (two-date with property mark) for sale on Gunsamerica--I didn't record the manufacture dates, and it sold just before I came up with the money...
There are two other Lugers recorded, which may or may not relate to these Imperial guns. In Still's "Weimar Lugers" 1993, pp. 76, 82 there is an Erfurt serial# 6331t, dated 1918/20 with a Weimar property stamp (it has a number of other strange stamps which are not germane to the date topic). And in Auto Mag August 2003 p.106, Dick Paysor reports an Erfurt, 1918/20 serial# 262 (ns). (It is interesting that Paysor reports the grip screws are inspector stamped.) I can't begin to speculate about these two Lugers, their origin or why someone felt bound to date stamp them in this way.
When I knew the details of only two Imperial two-dates, mine and the gun pictued in "Imperial Lugers", I began to wonder about their place in Erfurt production and their meaning to that production. These two guns have an s serial# suffix, very near the end of production, and are in fact only 70 guns apart--it is highly likely they were manufactured the same day.
The actual end of Erfurt production seems slightly murky. "Imperial Lugers" has production ending at war's end in November 1918 with an estimated year's production of up to 175,000 guns, the reported serial# range ending with 7538t (table, p.15). The same table, however, lists "less than three" samples reported in the u serial# range. I posed the question about this, and asked for reports of u-suffix 1918 Erfurts in on-line forums. The only response I recieved referred to a 1918-dated Erfurt seral# 1102u, described in Auto Mag, Jan. 1998, pp237-240. The correspondent did not quote the article, but did report the possibility that Weimar assembly or rerwork was involved. The article also posed the speculation that u-suffix Erfurts were in assembly racks when WWI ended and the doors closed, and that completed guns may represent "Imperial-Weimar transition pieces".
Reports of 1918 Erfurt P-08 with u-suffix serial numbers would be useful.
My curiosity not satisfied, I performed an arithmetic exercise. This should probably be considered a speculative diversion, being based on statistical analysis rather than research and documentation.
According to "Imperial Lugers", approximately 175,000 Erfurt P-08 were manufactured in 1918. WWI ended during the second week of November 1918, so if we accept that production ended with the Armistice that meams Erfurts were produced for 46 weeks that year. There are several serial# suffixes which have no reported guns, but the s and t ranges seem to be populated. If we divide the estimated production by 46 weeks, we come up with a 1918 production of about 3,800 guns per week. If for the sake of discussion we assume that the s and t serial#s were completely filled out, it is likely that this Erfurt Luger serial# 8895s--as well as the two-date # 8825s--were manufactured within three weeks of the end of WWI.
My final comments should be considered WAG speculation.
Discussing #8825s in "Imperial Lugers" Jan Still comments, "As Luger receivers were batch assembled and year-end production overlap must have been common, it is surprising that this is the only such marked Imperial double-date reported."
I have to wonder if another conclusion might be warrented. With over a million DWM and Erfurt P-08 and LP-08 manufactured for the German Army, it astonishing that there are not more of these two-date examples reported. It may be that this is a demonstration of a manufacturing system which was so well-controlled that there was virtually no year-end receiver production overlap.
The evidence in steel of the two-date Lugers reported here may suggest another origin.
All the reported examples are Erfurts. All the guns except one (unknown) are Revisions-Commission marked over the receiver hardness inspection. Three of the four wartime produced guns are completed in 1918 (the fourth is unknown), but of different origin dates.
This suggests that, in the Erfurt factory, some receivers which passed the Revisions-Commission were so marginal that they were held back, out of the production stream. In 1918 the need for guns was so desperate that they pressed even these parts into service.
Since none of the two-date examples are DWM Lugers, I have to wonder if this is another example of regulations (like the inspectors' stamps) which Erfurt followed precisely and DWM ignored.
Thats all that crosses my mind for now.
--Dwight