My Father's WWII Luger

[wlyon]

What is the reference to a "ruger" ? Rugers were not around at this time. Bill

[SuperTech1]

John,

Company A, 23rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division

Gary

Originally Posted by John Sabato

Supertech1, Just curious.

Can you identify the US military unit that you father was assigned to? that is right after the time than several divisions crossed the Rhine during the Remagen Bridgehead expansion.

[SuperTech1]

Bill

I was curious about that too. I used to own a Ruger 9mm but it was nowhere near that old!

I think he must have "misremembered" what it was as he states further on in the account when he returns to his company after being injured -

"From Paris France I took a train to Schillingstadt, Germany where Company A, 23rd Arm'd Infantry Battalion was located. It was sure great to see Sgt. ******** and most of the fellows I had been with when I got wounded.

I was surely glad to talk to ***** ***** and I was quite surprised when he gave me my German Luger 9mm and Belgium pistol 7.65mm or 32 caliber. He told me that Lt. ********* had taken my German Ruger 9mm. I didn't know what to do about that."


Maybe it was a P38?
Gary

Originally Posted by wlyon

What is the reference to a "ruger" ? Rugers were not around at this time. Bill

[John Sabato]

Thanks Gary... you never know where I might find another 9th Infantry Division "son"... I have found them in stranger places than a gun forum.

[Jan C Still]

See the below link for the documentation of the manufacturing dates of 1920 and 1921 dated DWM Lugers. Also, see pages 139, 140 and 144 of Weimar Lugers.

1920, 1921 DATED DWM LUGERS http://luger.gunboards.com/showthrea...ighlight=luger

Jan

[Douglas Jr.]

GAry,

Very nice pistol with a lot of history. I'm amazed that your father left a testimony about how he got the guns. Not many veterans worry about that. Keep it in your family. In any other collector's hands it will be only one more Luger. For your and your family it is much more important than that - it is part of your dad's service in the greatest war that we ever had.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Douglas

[suum cuique]

Originally Posted by Don M

Thanks for the photos. They provide additional evidence that both Hn. and H. were used as abbreviations for Hannover. I suspect the #2 mag was a later replacement.

It is interesting that your dad captured this rig near Gießen, which was in the state of Hessen and not very close to Hannover. This and the holster suggest that the rig was in the hands of the military at that time. It would be very interesting to learn how it got from Hannover to Gießen but I doubt we will ever know.

Well, it is quite unusual that an active rural police unit of Hannover would be captured in Giessen, but on the other hand police units were sent all over Europe during the war.
One example:
A unit founded in September of police officers of the Köthen/Anhalt and Dessau police were ordered to Poland on September 15th 1939, then sent to Stalino/Ukraine in 1942, then sent in 1943 to the Verona area in Northern Italy, then sent to the last stand in East Prussia were they got encircled and captured by the Red Army in February 1945.