Quote:
Originally posted by feldm�¼tze
I'm informed that an estimated 7000 1914 Erfurt P.08's, with prefix reaching into the "a" suffix, have interspersed (serial #'s) with LP.08's that year....that's seems slightly odd, especially from a government arsenal. Is there documentation to validate that?
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Mike,
Best documentation for all things Imperial P-08 is Jan Still's "Imperial Lugers". p.15 is a table of serial range, letter suffixes, and production.
As the Imperial-era production records for DWM and Erfurt are no longer extant, data has had to be inferred from the details of reported examples, compared with known manufacturing practice and commentary by people and publications closely contemporary to the source. This information comes from reports, observation, and study by serious collectors for more than 50 years.
Evidence is that in 1914 Erfurt produced a total of 30,000 Lugers--7,000 P-08 with serial numbers with (ns) and a suffixes; and 23,000 LP-08 with (ns), a, and b suffixes (Still's chart notes "less than three" P-08 reported with b suffix).
A 30,000-piece production run is not very large (compare with DWM's estimated 1917 production of more than 180,000 Lugers of all varieties).
1914 was the first year of production of LP-08. There is no fundamental difference between these and the standard Luger; use a rear toggle piece with no sight, make a relief cut on the front of the receiver, install an Artillery barrel with tanagent sight, and you have the LP variety. Having the variations intermixed seems logical. One guesses
WAG that over the year's time the Army requests delivery of standard or LP-08 as they need them, and Erfurt simply makes the parts change as necessary in the normal production line.
--Dwight