New Guy with G date P08

[Widows Son]

Greetings one and all.

If you frequent the Smith & Wesson forum you may have already seen a post regarding this gun. It was one of a few firearms left to me by my father when he passed away about 15 years ago.

He had many guns over the years but this was by far his favorite. He brought it back from Germany after the war having traded a pack of cigarettes for it and the uniform jacket from a German soldier he had befriended after the war.

When he got on board the troop ship to come home he had had the original holster, tool and various other components to compliment it. However as the ship was coming to port word went out that everyone's bags would be searched for weapons and other things they decided not to let the troops bring ashore so he stuffed the pistol and a spare magazine in his pants and left everything else behind. He was not happy when the shake down never happened.

I don't recall were he acquired the replacement holster but he paid $1 for the loading/take own tool at a antique store in New Hampshire back in the 70's.

Though still in decent shape the blue on the pistol was actually in much better condition until sometime in the late 1970's when he carried it for a year or so as a self defense weapon; people had tried to rob him 3 times in the driveway. He didn't like carrying it because of it's value to him but it was a great intimidator so he did until things quite down & he eventually found a 32 caliber weapon less valuable, and lighter, and open carried that on his waistband until the day he died.

It has all matching serial numbers and one matching magazine. Other than the blue being rubbed off in some areas the only real blemish I see is a slight chip on the lower edge of one of the grips.