Dutch Lugers

[Ron Wood]

Ed
What a coincidence! The very best reference on Dutch Lugers, "The Dutch Luger (Parabellum) A Complete History", was written by Bas J. Martens and Guus de Vries (possibly a distant cousin?!). It was published in 1994 and is a very comprehensive and interesting work. The Dutch were among the very first countries to test and adopt the Luger as a military sidearm. Their testing started with a prototype Luger in 1898, prior to the first full-time production of the Luger in 1900. The Luger was purchased by the Dutch East Indies Army as a standard sidearm in 1911 and is designated by the Dutch as the "M 11". The Dutch Lugers were produced primarily by DWM, but one infamous lot was assembled by the British firm of Vickers Ltd. That is an interesting story in itself. Dutch Lugers were also produced by Mauser and delivered as late as 1939. An additional 1000 pieces were to be delivered in 1940, but by this time Germany had invaded the Netherlands, so the 600 pieces completed of this final contract were diverted to the German military. The Dutch Luger has an interesting and colorful history. I would highly recommend that you obtain a copy of the book by Martens and de Vries, I think you will thoroughly enjoy it!