A Real Two-date Erfurt

[Dwight Gruber]

Herb,

There were differences in practices between WWI and WWI, and I wonder if there was a difference between Erfurt and DWM in WWI.

In WWI production started each year with serial# 1, and continued through each successive letter suffix until Dec. 31, when production started again the next day with 1. In WWII Mauser simply started with 1 in 1934, and continued through the number/letter sequence until it reached 9999z, and then started over again with 1, regardless of date. Still (3rd Reich Lugers) notes that between the first K date and the end of production in 1942 the letter sequence proceeded through the entire alphabet three times and ended with the Portuguese delivery in the n block.

In WWI Erfurt was a government arsenal, so the concept of "full production run" or "contract run" were probably not pertinent. They would simply have been in the Luger production business, punching them out day after day until production was no longer necessary.

I don't know what DWM's contract relationship was regarding P-08/P14 production once the war was well underway. We know that first-issue production was for a specific run, and that the Navy ordered specific quantities of guns, but if someone reading this knows what--or if--there was a contract-specified DWM production run during the war their information would be useful.

--Dwight