Left Over Parts...

[Edward Tinker]

Hi Bill, hope your summer work is done? I have heard the stories about Vickers over the year, but the ref I am refering to is the Dutch Luger by Martens.

I will paraphrase some of this,

As DWM was forbidden to deliver 9mm after WW1, the Dutch East Indies Army found another supplier in the form of Vickers. Through a Dutch rep of Vickers, 6,000 were ordered in Dec 1919 and delivered 2 years later. Vickers are basically similar to pre 1914 deliveries. Front toggle link carries the words Vickers LTD, instead of DWM, while barrel, breechblock, toggle links and frame have english proof marks. ...Finish is notably inferior to the DWM psitols. (pg 132).

Pg 80. ...December 20, 1918, manufacture was stopped (due to cancelling of all contracts). ...in 1919, several DWM factories resumed production, this time largely of peacetime articles.
Pg 81... one of the directors Ing Holl found the way to deliver these pistols to the dutch... DWM delivered all necessary parts for the M11 pistols in the white to Vickers, with a few machines and gauges for minor oeprations. Vickers finished the parts and assembled and proofed the pistols and by doing so, became the maker. ...Holl was quite proud of the fact that he had circumvented the Versailles Treaty and had also managed to dispose of a fairly large quantity of parts left over from war-time production.


So, that is where I remembered the info, 6,000 not 10,000, I knew that, just old timers fingers.

Bill, mine also has the original barrel, correctly marked, the toggle says DWM instead of Vickers but is otherwise marked corectly. Hard to say with Dutch Indies guns, played with hard, and they rearsenalled them many times on the islands. (All from what I've read, I'm a paper tiger as we used to say in the Army)