Gents,
Please excuse me for being almost absent on the forums; since the beginning of this year I was called back into the family wine bussiness. (Writing and testing Cobol computer programs).
One of the collectors drew my attention to this thread. I like to explain what we know from the documents that came in "the August Weiss Files", and which I used in the book "The Mauser Parabellum 1930 - 1946".
1. Document 65 (written bij august Weiss in 1960)
"Parabellum pistols for Police normally are 9mm. After the First World War, we (DWM) were not allowed by the Entnte to deliver 9mm pistols. In order to keep at east a small part of the large DWM alive, we were already happy to be allowed to deliver 100 pistols a day in the caliber 7.65 for the Police. Barrel lengths of 100mm and longer were also forbidden, so we reduced the barrels to 96 and 98mm. The Police later changed their barrels and also the recoil- and magazine spring; so they had their 9mm pistols". (page 339).
2. Document 26 (1972).
"In DWM Berlin Wittenau after WWI (around 1927) we made a few thousand Parabellum pistols having no DWM marking, destined for the so called Riff tribe in Morocco. These could not be delivered as DWM CEO Baron von Gantard and/or the government thought this was too risky. These pistols were later taken over by the Police in Berlin". (page 340).
3. I have in my collection a Police pistol (sear safety) having a crossed out "7.65" marking on the chamber. It has a 9mm barrel, nicely numbered and witness marked, als well as the stong 9mm recoil spring.
I hope this helps.
__________________
Joop
|