My 1914 erfurt

[hammered54]

Originally Posted by drbuster

Matt, er REALLY need better photos, including the magazine bottoms.

working on it...as of now here's 3 more.




as far as the mag. bottoms , there wood, both have the same ser# (as gun), are numbered 1 and 2, no. 1 shows 2 proof marks, no. 2 shows a + sign below the number.

will work on getting a few better pic of other parts of this gun.
thank's Matt.

[abukafura]

Geo: I am beginning to get excited about this thread. Here we have three Lugers, all within a close serial range, all dated 1914, all are Erfurts. These three include the one I have sent you, the one you have, and the one that Kornmeyer mentioned to me--a 1914 Erfurt, matched mag, with the GK marking. While I don't recall the serial number of the third Erfurt, I DO recall that it was close to my serial of 2446. It would almost seem like a block of 1914 Erfurts was set aside for this paricular pusrpose----to arm cavalry units as war approached. I think you are right about the odds.....

[klaus 3338]

Originally Posted by abukafura

I exchanged correspondence with Reinhard Kornmeyer in 1997 regarding the meaning of these grip strap markings. He was of the opinion that they could NOT mean Garde Kurraisier Regt Satff because there were not that many pistols in the staff HQ of such a unit (mine is numbered 122). I am not endorsing his view, only repeating it. He cited references at the time which seemed to validate his point. Don Maus told me in a note in Auto Mag that he believed this marking was for Gendarmierie Korps of Hesse. Also, Reinhard also cited a third Luger with grip strap markings of G.K.100

Interesting thread !
My English knowledge does not allow a long answer but you both are right: a staff of a cavalry regiment had in most cases only a few Lugers- in many cases only three (!). Even an infantry division’s commando has had only 50 (!) including "Divisionskommandeur, Feldintendatur, Divisions Proviantamt, Divisionsarzt, Feldjustizbeamte, Feld Divisionsgeistliche".

[Don M]

The G.K. stands for the Gendarmerie-Korps of Hessen (HWIS, Chap. 16). Others are listed in Table 16-3 of HWIS.

[hammered54]

knowing a brief history (at least from 1944/45) the G.K.71. now comes to make sence

the gun was picked up by my Father ( 242 inf. 42 Rainbow Div.) in Strasburg from a.......".police station " (go figure) along with both mag's and a broken striker (not from this gun).
I would like to thank all for helping me find this extra info. on this gun, if it could only talk.

thanks Matt.

[Don M]

Matt, thank you for the information about the capture location of this pistol. Although Strasbourg was in the Alsace-Lorraine region, it was very close to Hessen and adds additional confidence to the identification of the G.K. markings.