Luger Factory Shipments

[Marvin]

OK, time for me to chime in on this one. I have heard the story about P.38s and Lugers being shipped in wood, metal, etc. containers and once the weapon was place in the container, a grease was poured over the pistols to protect them from rust. This seems to b=me to be a little "over kill". The reason is that they normally were not kept in storage for that long of a period once the war began. From the Major Depot, they were then shipped to local areas, and finally to the field distribution site. Why would they cover the pistols with all this grease when a light oil would do the same thing? I can understand the US doing this because the firearms were shipped by ship and could definetly rust on the trip to Europe.


At one time I worked for a German company and the President of the company in the US was a former German Army soldier. He said that the pistols were shipped in wooded crates and lightly covered with an oil. The light oil protected the pistols and they could be distributed and used immediatly. The soldiers did not have time to clean all the grease from a firearm. I have also read somewhere that this was how they were shipped; in ready to fire condition. The soldiers also used the wood boxes for other things such as a fuel for a fire in the Winter. This light oil makes more sense to me than a heavy grease coating.


What are your thoughts on this guys???


Marvin