Luger Factory Shipments

[Ted]

In Buxton's Volume II of the P.38 Series of books he speaks of shipments of P.38s being shipped from Mauser in wooden boxes (Volume II, page 94) with each pistol totally encased in heavy grease. Of course P.38s had plastic grips. This made me wonder how Lugers were shipped also. Doesn't seem like this would be a good idea as the wooden grip panels would soak up the grease and get very nasty. Just think what a find one of these original wooden crates would be today! AH.......one can dream!! Maybe there is a buried treasure out there some where!! Ted

[Dok]

...in some seldom used warehouse somewhere, under a pile of otherwise useless junk, lies an old faded wooden crate, covered with years of dust, the writing barely readable... "Pistole Parabellum P.08 - Kaliber 9m/m"


Dok

[Frank]

The chances are probably even higher than winning the powerball lottery!!! One can always hope !! Now, the chances of finding a single luger in it's cardboard box (or parchment wrapping) might be a whole bunch better !! In fact, I know someone that claims to have one, but I have never seen it.

[G.T.]

Hi Ted! Over the years,in talking with vet's on how they aquired their P.38's, I have heard some interesting srories, One story related to me in person, by a old vet went like this, he said his group came across a supply train that was abandon, in one of the open cars they found a metal container that was full of P.38's, exactly 30...the reason he remembers this number is there were exactly 30 men in his group and everyone got 1 pistol....he went on to tell me that they all had black grips and were all a frosty slate gray color.....this man had nothing to sell and no reason to make anything up, he was just telling me the event as he remembered it.....on a seperate occasion, I purchased an AC/43 mauser P.38 from a fellow collector that acquired it from the vet. This collector is a close personal friend and he has never misrepresnted anything in the 20+ years I have known him, the story related to him was much the same, as the pistol (stone mint) came from a metal box containing 30 P.38's.....I know it is all word of mouth, and fifty year old memories, but I believe! till...later...G.T.

On my second tour in RVN I talked with an older NCO who was at an A-Camp in the early sixties. In a shipment of supplies were two crates of new Lugers-one was Navy Lugers-they were issued out to the troops-don't know numbers. He had a navy and lost it in a stream crossing. These were simply tools on a job.

The French had shipped a whole lot of stuff over there and had left most behind.

As Special Forces primarily mission was working with indiginous irregulars in remote areas we were pretty much considered second class citizens and got a lot of hand-me down equipment. We were not issued US rations and generally had no air support. There were indig strike forces armed with MP-40s.

When I arrived at my camp, A-341, in 1968 we were armed with M-2 carbines, Garands, .30 cal A-6's, and 3.5 Rocket Launchers. Got M 16s and M 60s in 1969.


Mike P

[John Sabato]

The combined photo was made up of individual photos that were posted with an eBay auction probably two years ago.


I had never seen an original Luger crate before, but this one seems genuine. I don't know if it was used to ship Lugers into this country or not, but I do remember that the crate was located in the US.


From the appearance of the tie-wraps on the individual lugers in the pictures and the fact that the toggle stamps vary, I would imagine that this was not an original factory shipment in the picture, but was in-fact, an original crate that was used to deliver what we are now calling "import-marked" guns here.


Unfortunately, I didn't capture the auction winners information at the time or maybe we could have gotten more information.


Does anyone here know who bought this crate or has one? Tom Heller? Ralph Shattuck? Please chime in here...


-John




http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/crate.jpg

[Ted]

Wow, doesnt that make my mouth water!!!

[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

[MikeP]

I was issued an unissued M2 Carbine in 1968-it was in a heavy brown paper wrapped tinfoil envelope-completely dry with a stiff fabric tube of some kind in the barrel-had two 30-rd mags dry sealed in foil. Every other weapon I was ever issued came off a rack and was not new. Corretion: once got a new M 16 wrapped same way. These were recorded within issuing unit. Usually turned in when moving to different outfit. (Ref-unit marked '08s.)

I don't believe soldiers were often given crates of guns to divvie up-they would have been issued through a supply room or arms depot.

Also weapons shipped in cosmoline were generally cleaned by REMF types on a detail similar to KP or support.

They were then issued through channels.

Fortunately a lot of this broke down near the end for the Nazis and there would have been exceptions-but you have to remember how fixated those rats were with order and records.


Mike P on stuff I would like to forget

[Aaron]

I just love stories about military pistols new in factory crates. As a kid in 1944 I had a friend whose brother was a musician and toured the ETO with a USO troupe. These USO people usually picked up war souvenirs from the GIs. I don't know what they traded for these, whether it was goods, money, or a roll in the hay with one of the girls in the troupe. Anyway, one GI had a crate of unissued Sauer 38H pistols, and I was bug eyed when I first saw the gun. I got no details on the crate, nor did I know enough to ask. Then again, right after Desert Storm a Marine showed me an FN Browning HiPower beautifully marked with an Iraqi crest he had taken out of a factory crate and divided up with his platoon. I now own that Browning, but never got the details on the crate, and it is too late to ask, as the Marine is no longer alive.

[John Sabato]

I think that shipment of pistols was very likely a short term storage situation and that standard weapons lubrication was used to protect them in transit.


-John

[Wombat]

Probably under the "ARK" in that vast warehouse....


(from Raiders of the Lost Ark movie)> hehehe

[Johnny Peppers]

Model 1911A1 pistols were shipped in fairly light cardboard boxes, and were not immersed in cosmoline. The lid was taped, and nothing more than a protective paper was used to prevent rust. Quite a few of the Lend Lease 1911A1's were Ithacas, and quite a few came back from England in the early 50's still in the original boxes.

[G.T.]

The gentlemen who I talked with indicated that there was no oil or coating of any kind on the P.38's they acquired, as the subject came up as a discussion about the phosphate finish ......I don't believe the Germans had any extra petrol to throw around any way!....till...later...G.T.

Reference shipping crates I have 2 of the metal crates similar to the ones shown in Johns photos. One is fitted for Lugers and the other for P38s I purchased them from Steve at AIM as he had kept them for himself when he got his Imports in. They have German markings and I believe one has the year 43 on it. I also purchased one of the wooden crates that held P38s from FGS. If you ever attend one of the Gun Show where Doug Smith of FGS sets up he carries his for sale P38s in it he may have some for sale yet.

Going back to Ted's dream's of finding a warehouse of Luger's. Stranger things have happened. When I was stationed in Germany in '82. They found one of those underground hangers outside of Struttgart that the Luftwaffe was forced to build late in the war. It housed two ME-109's and an FW-190. Except for the fact that the rats had eaten the rubber parts and electrical wiring, the planes were flyable.


Less romantic, in 1972 the Germans were modernizing the road network around Munich in prepration for the Olympics. They cut an underpass under the Kaserne housing the 66th MI and AFEES headquarters. Before the US took it over, the AFEES building was the Bavarian Nazi party HQ. The digging uncovered some secret basement rooms that were used for arms storage. Unfortunately, afer 33 years everything had turned to rust. But we all can still hope.