P08, S-42 Lugers

[guns3545]

Harry,

David's post is right on.

P.08 is the military designation of the Luger that was adopted by the German military in 1908. Hence "P" for Pistole and 08 for 1908, the year of adoption. The P.08 was replaced by the P.38, which was adopted in 1938 but only came into production after 1940, early 1941. Thus, only in 1941 was the P.08 model number actually rollmarked onto the Luger and its holsters to avoid confusion with the P.38

S/42 is one of the various manufacturer codes used by the Government to confuse the Allies in WWII.

In WWI, DWM and Erfurt were the primary P.08 manufacturers and clearly displayed their logo on the toggle. Manufacturer codes were not used.

As the the Nazis took control in 1933/34 and started to ramp up production of war matériel, they used date codes to disguise the year of production and manufacturer codes to disguise the exact manufacturer, at least in theory. S/42 was Mauser's code from 1934 on wards. It changed to 42 in 1939, which then changed to byf in 1941.

The other manufacturer of P.08's in WWII was Krieghoff who did not use a manufacturer's code and instead used the Krieghoff Anchor logo on the toggle.

FYI, during this timeframe, Mauser also made Lugers commercially and for the Police. These Lugers used the Mauser logo on the toggle. These are sometimes referred to as "Mauser Banners"

Hope this helps.

John