Spandau At Simpson's LTD...

tom · 03-03-2002, 12:40 PM

Judging from the Bluebooks accuracy in other areas, I'd be *very* skeptical of accepting their opinion as gospel.

The problem with the Spandau pieces is their extreme rarity makes them more of an oddity than a real variant. The history on these guns is extremely murky to say the least and to the best of my knowledge, no documentation has survived to conclusively prove they were ever manufactured.

The following is PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART, but based on many years of managing military logistics.

THE FOLLOWING IS IS PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART.

What appears to be the most likely origin of these guns from both a historical and military logistical perspective is they are reworks. I believe that the royal rifle factory at Spandau had some excess production capacity and as a result, someone on the General Staff suggested a pilot program of doing Revision Commission re-works there. All Spandau lugers are Revision Commission marked, if I remember correctly. Please, bear in mind, THIS IS PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART.

In my hypothetical scenario, some proof of concept reworks are produced in a pilot program to provide sample product to whomever was the approval authority for such a change-probably the Chief of Ordinance or Supply-whoever had staff cognizance over small arms supply and maintenance.

These proof of concept pieces would logically have been marked to differenciate them from "ordinary" revisions commission reworks. The marking was the Spandau stamp and Imperial crown on the toggle.

For reasons that are unknown, but probably having to do with the collapse of the war effort, the program never got beyond proof of concept phase and the few pieces that were produced found their way into general supply stores, were kept as souvenirs, or ????

If any forumistas has a plausible hypothesis, I would enjoy reading it.

Tom

03-03-2002, 12:40 PM	#4
tom User Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 269 Thanks: 0 Thanked 4 Times in 2 Posts	Re: What about Blue Book?. Judging from the Bluebooks accuracy in other areas, I'd be very skeptical of accepting their opinion as gospel. The problem with the Spandau pieces is their extreme rarity makes them more of an oddity than a real variant. The history on these guns is extremely murky to say the least and to the best of my knowledge, no documentation has survived to conclusively prove they were ever manufactured. The following is PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART, but based on many years of managing military logistics. THE FOLLOWING IS IS PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART. What appears to be the most likely origin of these guns from both a historical and military logistical perspective is they are reworks. I believe that the royal rifle factory at Spandau had some excess production capacity and as a result, someone on the General Staff suggested a pilot program of doing Revision Commission re-works there. All Spandau lugers are Revision Commission marked, if I remember correctly. Please, bear in mind, THIS IS PURE SPECULATION ON MY PART. In my hypothetical scenario, some proof of concept reworks are produced in a pilot program to provide sample product to whomever was the approval authority for such a change-probably the Chief of Ordinance or Supply-whoever had staff cognizance over small arms supply and maintenance. These proof of concept pieces would logically have been marked to differenciate them from "ordinary" revisions commission reworks. The marking was the Spandau stamp and Imperial crown on the toggle. For reasons that are unknown, but probably having to do with the collapse of the war effort, the program never got beyond proof of concept phase and the few pieces that were produced found their way into general supply stores, were kept as souvenirs, or ???? If any forumistas has a plausible hypothesis, I would enjoy reading it. Tom