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Marvin · 05-12-2001, 06:37 AM

Bill and All Others,

The two thoughts Bill stated are the most prevelent for an explanation as to the meaning of the "asterisk", but I gave a lot of thought to this and came up with this theory:

The "asterisk" began to show up on German Ordnance in the early 1940s and became more and more prevelent as the war progressed. It is seen on the barrels of Lugers and on the slide, locking block and barrels of P.38s with the "cyq" probably having the most, then Mauser, and then Walther.

To use this as a rejection mark makes a lot of sense, but the Germans would.should not have worried too much about this in the early part of the war. As for Luger rejected parts, they could be used for commercial production, or the later contract pistols to Portugal, etc.

As to it being a heat treat mark, it is to large when the little "dimple" does the same thing. In my years dealing with machine shops, there has never been any machine or stamps this size to indicate a heat treat check. Why would they want to put this mark on them except to say the heat treat passed inspection. Good theory and could be true.

Now for my theory. The SS was the provider of labor to the many industrial plants in Germany. The SS provided this labor from the Concentration Camps and they were paid by the Manufacturing Company that used these people. Since many of them did not want to be there in the first palce, there was a chance that Sabatoge to the parts may take place and the manufacturers knew this. Since they were paying the SS for this labor, they should be resonsible for them to NOT cause problems with parts being out of spec, or deliberate sabatoge. To accomplish this additional inspection process, the SS used the "asterisk" as a stamp to show that a ramdom check had been performed by the SS to verify the part was good. As the war progressed, more and more forced labor was used and the need for more checks on the SS provided laborers work.

There is a photo of an SS schoolroom with this "asterisk" on the blackboard with other SS Runes. Why would the SS be using this symbol and it not show up more often. Was it one of the more obscure Runes and it was picked as the inspection stamp? With this little bit of tie-in to the SS, it was what started me thinking on this theory. If the SS provided labor, they were paid for this labor, the manufacturers should hold them respnsible for these people to a certain extent and they did their own QC check by using one of thier own Runes!

OK, there is no right or wrong answer to this question, just thoeries and speculation. Blast away on my theory and tear it apart so it can be eliminted or maybe it could be true!

Marvin

05-12-2001, 06:37 AM	#13
Marvin User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Upstate S.C. Posts: 1,132 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Marvin's Theory Bill and All Others, The two thoughts Bill stated are the most prevelent for an explanation as to the meaning of the "asterisk", but I gave a lot of thought to this and came up with this theory: The "asterisk" began to show up on German Ordnance in the early 1940s and became more and more prevelent as the war progressed. It is seen on the barrels of Lugers and on the slide, locking block and barrels of P.38s with the "cyq" probably having the most, then Mauser, and then Walther. To use this as a rejection mark makes a lot of sense, but the Germans would.should not have worried too much about this in the early part of the war. As for Luger rejected parts, they could be used for commercial production, or the later contract pistols to Portugal, etc. As to it being a heat treat mark, it is to large when the little "dimple" does the same thing. In my years dealing with machine shops, there has never been any machine or stamps this size to indicate a heat treat check. Why would they want to put this mark on them except to say the heat treat passed inspection. Good theory and could be true. Now for my theory. The SS was the provider of labor to the many industrial plants in Germany. The SS provided this labor from the Concentration Camps and they were paid by the Manufacturing Company that used these people. Since many of them did not want to be there in the first palce, there was a chance that Sabatoge to the parts may take place and the manufacturers knew this. Since they were paying the SS for this labor, they should be resonsible for them to NOT cause problems with parts being out of spec, or deliberate sabatoge. To accomplish this additional inspection process, the SS used the "asterisk" as a stamp to show that a ramdom check had been performed by the SS to verify the part was good. As the war progressed, more and more forced labor was used and the need for more checks on the SS provided laborers work. There is a photo of an SS schoolroom with this "asterisk" on the blackboard with other SS Runes. Why would the SS be using this symbol and it not show up more often. Was it one of the more obscure Runes and it was picked as the inspection stamp? With this little bit of tie-in to the SS, it was what started me thinking on this theory. If the SS provided labor, they were paid for this labor, the manufacturers should hold them respnsible for these people to a certain extent and they did their own QC check by using one of thier own Runes! OK, there is no right or wrong answer to this question, just thoeries and speculation. Blast away on my theory and tear it apart so it can be eliminted or maybe it could be true! Marvin