Mills Holster - Brazilian Luger

[Douglas Jr.]

Brazilian Contract Luger Mills Holster

At the end of the 1910s Brazilian Army started to change its field gear from leather to canvas, probably as na influence if its observations of British material used in the World War I. As most of the Allies forces, Brazil started to buy belts, ammo pouches, suspenders and holsters made by the famous British manufacturer Mills & Co. The change in their equipment, although welcomed, took almost 20 years to be completed, mostly because of internal turmoil and lack of funds, that plagued the nation’s economy during the late 20s and early 30s.

Among the items developed by Mills for the Brazilian Army was a canvas holster. I had seen images of this holster only in period photographs but never had a chance to do a in hands evaluation. I had thought that was a generic issue holster issued to accommodate a wide range of automatic pistols and revolvers and types, as the Parabellum was issued usually with one of the two models of leather holsters then available. However, I was wrong.

Last week I finally managed to buy, by chance and for a very nice price, one of the holsters made by Mills for the Brazilian Army in 1918. Although it bears no property marks, it has some features that clearly identify it as a Brazilian Army issued holster and FOR A LUGER PISTOL. It has an additional compartment above the main body for the take down tool and other cleaning stuff, pouches for the cleaning rod and pin punch and a pouch for carrying two magazines. Surely this kind of holster was issued later for different types of guns, but its primary conception was for the Brazilian Contract Luger. Very few examples survived and this is the only one I located in more than 20 years of collecting.

It is interesting to think (although highly speculative from my part) that this holster was intended for Brazilian personnel sent to Europe in World War I. Having declared war against the Central Powers in October, 1917 (after some of our merchant ships having been sunk by the Kaiserliche Marine U-Boots), Brazilian participation in WWI was very humble with the country sending a Navy fleet (engaged in counter submarine activities) and a small Army contingent of pilots (trained by RAF), medical staff and infantry observers (who actually fought in the tranches with French troops).

I took some pictures of this holster (now in my humble collection) together with my shooter grade Brazilian Luger (hence the pitting) and also comparing it with the 2nd Model leather holster, issued at the same timeframe as the canvas one. With that Now I need to get a cleaning rod and a pin punch…

Hope you enjoy it.

Douglas.