April Fool Luger

[Thor]

The smell of cordite, blood and sweat hung heavy in the air! The rolling acrid smoke stung the young soldiers eyes as he peered through the haze of battle. Only faint moans of wounded soldiers muffled through the air and in the distance the faint clank of the machines of War from the retreating army. The soldier overwhelmed from the recent memories of the roar of battle, the cry of people being hit by small arms fire and artillery shrapnel stood in a daze remembering the recent senses reeling episodes of exploding shells, running and screaming people and all the other noises that made up the battle that had just concluded. Some of the smoke and haze cleared and the young soldier spied a German officer crumpled by several hits from a machine gun. He lay in an ackward crumpled heap that bespoke the violence of his death. Coming closer now………watching warily for any sign of life, the solider saw what he had long to find! A fine German pistol, or so he assumed, housed in a slightly blocky looking hard black case or holster as you yanks might call it. After certain the officer was stone cold dead, he removed the fine German pistol, glinting in the sunlight that was striving to clear the battle haze and smoke. IT WAS A LUGER, and real German Luger and upon close examination of the fine weapon, he knew he had found the personal weapon of the famous German General!! General Dieter Wilhelm Mauser!! For on the top of the toggle was inscribed the Generals initials in a fine scroll work! General DWM!!

[Frank]

Hey Thor, April 1, was yesterday!!! Boo Hissssss!


<img border="0" alt="[oops]" title="" src="graemlins/oops.gif" />
<img border="0" alt="[sleep]" title="" src="graemlins/sleep.gif" />

[Thor]

yep and the ol Thorman was a little under der weather, but I still love that story!

[Frank]

Well I hope ole Thorman is now back among the living!! In you state of illness, you resurrected a very old story. I hope you can come up with a new one for the next April Fool's Day!!

[Thor]

Dont hold your breath!

[Navy]

All,
As a kid in middle Georgia growing up in the late '40's and early '50's, I had a next door neighbor named John Crandal, who was a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, (at the time). Mr. Crandall had a Luger and it was widely known through out the neighborhood that Mr. Crandall had lots of III Reich "trophies" as Mr. Crandall had been an Army Air Corps supply officer.

Well, one day, while out playing with my mates and my dog, Mr. Crandall arrived in his big Buick convertible. I said hello and sheepishly asked if it were true that he had a Luger.
he replied that he did. He asked if I would like to see it.

No surprise answer there.

He took me into his garage to a padlocked cabinet, opened it and produced a holster, that in my mind's eye some nearly fifty years later, was the color of cigarette tobacco.

He handed it to me and said, "Open it."

I unbuckled the holster strap and there was this beautiful thing of wood and steel peeking out.

Mr. Crandall said, "Let me show it to you." and took the holster from my kid hands and in doing so, began removing the pistol.

"Look at this, Tommy. This is the monogram of the German General I took this pistol from!"
Of course I believed that for many years.

That was a wonderful, innocent and naive time when Luger's were under $40 and Colt M1911's were about $25.

A memory, FWIW,
Good Night, Mr. Crandall, where ever you may be.
Tom A.

[Big Norm]

Tom,
Yah, right! Fourty bucks for a Luger, April fools day. Next your going to tell us that it was a .45 cal and the General was General Ludwig and he had his initials on the rear of the toggle. And Mr. Crandall traded it for a car so that he could have transportation to work. But the car is a classic and is now worth 8 million bucks. So the sons sold the car and bought a .45 cal.carbine Luger from some guy in Arizona that just happened to belong to the same general because his initials are also on this gun. But the kids now live in Canada and the police tried to confiscate the gun but the kids escaped to France and sold that gun to the generals family, who are quite rich, for 10 million euros. The kids then used that money to buy a French vineyard. But the kids became drunks after taste testing too much wine and had to sell the vineyard and move back to America where they bought a 1940 Luger mismatched shooter which they had Thor restore and they lived happily everafter.
Yah, I heard that one before.
Big Norm

[Brandon]

Good one Big Norm!

I got lost about 3 times while reading that...

Regards, Brandon

[Navy]

Hey Norm,

Just trying to explain that there was a GREAT DEAL of misinformation waaaay back then and a part of that misinformation was that there was allegedly some German general who had his monogram (DWM) on his Luger; if not on all the Lugers under his command. This was apparently widely believed, as I have heard the same story before from at least six W.W.II vets who didn't give a damn about guns but happened to have brought back a souvenir Luger.

We were not so sophisticated/alienated in the 1950's and, as a kid, I tended to believe what my adult neighbors (most of whom, like my dad, were combat vets of W.W.II) told me. These were some bona fide American Heros who had been places, like Omaha Beach, the Ardennes, Anzio, and the Huertgen Forest; place names which meant little to a kid but later much more as the kid became a historian and career soldier. As I recall, there were,on my short street,not less than 3 Silver Star holders and many, many more Purple Heart recipients.

As a result of the pioneering work done by Harry Jones, Fred Datig etc, I got smarter about Lugers, but it took time; lots of time. Further work by Jan and Sam, as well as all the others who have contributed with research has almost eliminated the old notions and folk lore, but one still encounters it on occasion.

So, I am stating without reservation that what I posted is true to the best of my memory. I did not intend it to be a joke; Mr. Crandall is long dead; his daughter still lives in Middle Georgia. Although I have neither seen or spoken with her for over thirty years, due to a hiatus of 22 years in the Union Army and galavanting around the world following my return to civil status, I feel confident that she still owns that pistol. I hope she never ceases to do so. The next time I am in Middle georgia, I will give her a "Blast from the Past" telephone call and inquire.

Tom A

[ViggoG]

Sorry Big Norm, <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />
Bak in 1949 ther wuz so meny brung baks thet gud lookn Luggers fer $40 wuz de goin ting. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />
I no fur Iuns wuz ther n Ize gottn mien Matchin 1906 AE fur $35.00 <img border="0" alt="[jumper]" title="" src="graemlins/jumper.gif" />
I cun prov itn fer shur cuz Ise stil goten et.
Click on ;
http://gallery.rennlist.com/lugeralb...d/Page_1_3.jpg
Ther itn iz. Thets itn ! <img border="0" alt="[king]" title="" src="graemlins/r.gif" />
ViggoG <img border="0" alt="[thumbsup]" title="" src="graemlins/bigok.gif" />

[AGE]

In the 40's and 50's Lugers and P-38s were cheap. Like $29.95 or thereabouts. When I bought my first handgun, a P-38, in 1956 the price was $35. Of course new 1911s and SAAs cost $67.50, a great big sum. Prices on desirable handguns do go up (a whole lot in some cases) over time.

[MikeP]

If you paid $35 for a P38 in 1956 you wuz robbed.

Up to about '65 you could find them at gunshows for that. They were next to the $75 artilleries. and that's no fooling.

$35 was not peanuts im those days.

MP

[ViggoG]

MikeP,
You are quite correct, $35 was a full weeks salary for this apprentice machinest.
ViggoG

[Big Norm]

To all and mostly my good buddy Tom,
I am sorry if I mislead anybody. It was April Fool time and Thor put me in a goofy mood with his post. The little faces at the bottom of the screen only pop up when I edit a post so I forgot to show one of them. I was just yanking chains and having some fun.
Big Norm

[Frank]

Thor, see what you have done!!! Aren't you ashamed????

Ya, right, I know just how ashamed you are!!

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[Navy]

Yo Norm,
Absolutely no offense taken. Now if it had been Wes posting, that would be a different story!
Just joking Wes!
Tom A.

[John Sabato]

Hey Norm,

There are TWO methods of posting a reply... if you use the little window at the bottom of a message thread this is the 'Quickreply' method and it does not include all the "little faces"

For the full capabilities in replying you have to use the 'Postreply' button at the bottom of the page (next to the 'newtopic' button) that is in color and you will have all the bells and whistles to use in your reply

[Thor]

If anything, I posted it in the new members forum to set the tone for new users to watch out when acquiring that first precious Parabellum and to watch for those fancy gun show stories about "This mint and rare Luger was taken from a HIGH ranking German Officer" and was kept for 50 yrs in a sealed vault deep in the German black forest until......well.....yesterday where it was flown over here........well......just to sell to you........and....blah blahÃ?Â*blahÃ?Â* yadda yadda yaddaÃ?Â* sell, sell, sell, etc etcÃ?Â*etcÃ?Â* Take those type of stories with a big bucket (as opposed a grain of salt)of NACL. Where price is directly related to the flamboyance of the story!

[Big Norm]

Thanks a lot John. I was always wondering why there seemed to be a duplication of posting a message. Now I feel a lot better I am learning something new every day. <img border="0" alt="[hiha]" title="" src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" />
Big Norm

[Big Norm]

Thor,
you are exactly right. Newbies should be made aware of various phoney sales pitches. A few weeks ago I bought an excellent 1917 navy off of a fella and he told me that he paid $3500 for it ten years ago. Yah right. Ten years ago you could have gotten the same gun for $2500 or so. But I didn't say anything because the gun was excellent and I didn't pay $3500 for it. Besides, the guy also had an excellent 1913 Erfurt army that I wanted. I now have both guns but I later told the guy that I felt that I paid a tad too much for some obsolete Lugers. He laughed at that one but I had politely given him a small double message while buying his guns without destroying the negotiations.
Another message that we should give to newbies is that we should not pay any attention to what some other guy paid for a gun. That is the 'greater fool' philosophy of selling a gun. What someone else paid for a gun is history. What a gun is currently worth is what some one else is willing to pay for it now.
Big Norm