Hello George,
I would appreciate any info. you might get back from Ed Sayre.
I am in the process of getting some back-issues of AutoMags; in which Ed had a series of write-ups about the TM-08.
I did do some reading in my John Walter book, "The Luger Book", on page 272.
A Hungarian fellow named Friedrich Blum was granted thee (3) German patents for the TM-08 development in the years 1915-1916. Patents were DRP # 302.455, 305.074, and 305.564.
The following is only some wild speculation on my part with no back-up documentation what so ever, but here goes :
If TM-08's were available in the 1915 to early 1916 time frame, maybe some limited number of leather carriers were made to accompany the "salesmen" samples of TM-08's that were being shown around. Once the Germany military decided to adopt the TM-08, maybe the cavas design was chosen as an alternate due to the fact that canvas might be easier to get a TM08 in/out of in the field...
Of course, I do not know exactly when the old Hans Tauscher inventory was "seized and frozen". I have just assumed it was in the same time frame (early April 1916) as when he was arrested...
Regards,
Pete... <img border="0" alt="[typing]" title="" src="graemlins/yltype.gif" />