Police Luger Unit Mark

[Dwight Gruber]

Originally Posted by Jan C Still

Dwight
What is the basis of your statement:
"This pistol was rebarrelled to 9mm between 1935-1938."

I must of missed the documentation that the 29 DWM was first manufactured (1929/early 1930) in .30 cal. and this barrel later changed out for a 9mm barrel. If this is correct some portion of the German police must have armed with .30 caliber Lugers for a few years.
Jan

Jan,

I mis-spoke the dates, did it from memory, shouold have been 1936-1939. That is the time period of use for the Waffenamt power proofs on the receiver and barrel.

DWM was forbidden by the IMKK, under the terms of tlhe Versailles treaty, to manufacture weapons of military caliber (9mm) and military barrel length (100mm). This left the loophole of producing commercial pistols, so all of DWM's Luger production after 1921 had 95mm long, cal. 7.65mm barrels.

After acquiring new DWM produced pistols the police had them rebarrelled to 9mm. Where the barrels came from and where the work was done is unclear. During the period in which Simson had the exclusive P08 contract, they deliverd thousands of 9mm replacement barrels, many opf which have Waffenamt e/6 or e/33 inspection marks (the source of the "Simson rework" mis-identification). Occasionally replacement barrels are seen with Erfurt inspection marks or the Mauser S/42 replacement part code.

Some were rebarrelled close enough in time and place to have commercial proofs, some have various Weimar-period eagle military proofs, some were replaced at the Berlin police armory. The proof stamp used, along with any manufacturer's inspection mark, gives a general indication of where and when the work was done.

There were certainly .30 Parabellums in use by the police at one time or another. Karl Fischer's police equipment manuals pre-1944 (at least) include both the 9mm P08 and 7.65mm Parabellum. Lugers with Bremen police unit marks are found with 7.65 stamped on their receivers, cancelled when the pistols were rebarrelled to 9mm. Pistols of the Reichsbahnpolizei (rail police) are found in .30 cal. One of the police battalions sent to the occupied territories (can't tell you which one right now, don't have the reference at hand) was issued a number of "P08 in.30 cal."

But it does appear that the police went to a great deal of trouble to have their Lugers in 9mm, and the dearth of examples in 7.65mm indicates they were very successful in doing so.

--Dwight

[Don M]

The idea that the blank toggles on 29 DWMs were left over from the canceled Riff Contract was discussed at length over a year ago in http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=25442 and http://luger.gunboards.com/showthrea...WM-BKIW-Lugers. In brief, the conclusion was that evidence strongly indicated that too many blank toggle Lugers were produced (approx. 15,000) to be explained by the Riff order for "a couple of thousand" pistols as recalled by August Weiss. Has additional evidence been discovered?

Regarding DWM/BKIW production of 9mm Lugers, my research has strongly suggested that, sometime following the disbandment of the IMKK in January 1927, they resumed manufacturing 9mm Lugers with 100mm barrels for the police. This too has been discussed on the forums (http://luger.gunboards.com/showthrea...or-Joop-or-Don). While the pistol that started this thread may have been rebarreled in the late 1930s, I believe its original barrel was also 9mm.