Luger pistols in the USA and Germany
P08 pistol "Sea model" sample 1914, Army Museum, Stockholm
It was a .0,45 caliber Luger with an extended grip ...
... That was a real gangster weapon.
Aimed combat range - two hundred meters,
a device for installing an optical sight,
frame for attached buttstock, translation lever
for automatic shooting and other conveniences ...
“I see,” I said. “I understand that very well.
And that's why I'll sleep here on hard chairs
resting my head on your damn safe
and I will shoot any bastard with silver bullets,
who will try to take the suitcase away from me.
If you see Moses, tell him all this word for word.
Expressions do not need to be softened.
And tell him that in the shooting competition
I took prizes with a 0,45 caliber luger.
Go ahead and leave me alone.
Hotel "At the deceased climber" A. and B. Strugatsky
... That was a real gangster weapon.
Aimed combat range - two hundred meters,
a device for installing an optical sight,
frame for attached buttstock, translation lever
for automatic shooting and other conveniences ...
“I see,” I said. “I understand that very well.
And that's why I'll sleep here on hard chairs
resting my head on your damn safe
and I will shoot any bastard with silver bullets,
who will try to take the suitcase away from me.
If you see Moses, tell him all this word for word.
Expressions do not need to be softened.
And tell him that in the shooting competition
I took prizes with a 0,45 caliber luger.
Go ahead and leave me alone.
Hotel "At the deceased climber" A. and B. Strugatsky
History firearms. And it so happened that the Board of Ammunition and Fortification of the United States tested Borchardt's pistol in October 1897, found it "very satisfactory" and recommended continuing the test. However, there were no funds for the purchase of pistols, so nothing was done until March 1901, when two 7,65-mm Lugers of the 1900 model of the year, received through DWM agent in the USA, Hans Tauscher, were received for testing.
USA
Tests began with disassembly and assembly (Tauscher performed both operations with impressive speed and even grace), after which the shooting began for accuracy, in which the Luger performed predictably well, even when a complete stranger fired from it.
The same pistol with a full complement of accessories, including a snail store! Photo by Alain Daubresse, website www.littlegun.be
This was followed by reliability tests, during which 1 shots were fired. The pistol gave only 734 misfires, mostly at the very beginning, as the tested Luger had not been lubricated or cleaned since its arrival in the United States.
The corrosion resistance test caused problems: 24 hours in the steam chamber left a thick layer of rust on the outer surface of the pistol, and the mechanism was unable to eject ten rounds. However, after applying the lubricant, 78 shots were fired from it without problems.
The final stage of testing with cartridges with obviously lower charges was also successful and showed the lack of sensitivity of the Luger pistol to the quality of ammunition.
As a result, the Council recommended the purchase of 1 000-mm pistols and 7,65 cartridges for them for large-scale military trials and to allocate $ 200 for this purpose. The holsters were supposed to be produced by the Rock Island Arsenal.
In February-March 1902, pistols were received and sent to various organizations: ten were received by the United States Military Academy and West Point; Presidio, San Francisco (15 pistols); Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn (10 pistols); Fort Riley, Kansas (40 pistols); plus five pistols for each of the 105 cavalry, that is, in total, the American cavalry received 525 pistols, but some sources note that 625 were received.
Magazine "snail" with a lever for the spring and the number of cartridges printed on the lid. Photo by Alain Daubresse, website www.littlegun.be
I liked the Luger, yes, but most of the US Army units chose to keep the larger caliber revolvers.
As a result, all pistols were recalled to the Springfield Arsenal in 1905, and in 1906 they were sold at auction to arms dealer Francis Bannerman, who began selling them at retail.
Then 9mm pistols were delivered to the United States. But the fighting in the Philippines showed that even this caliber cannot always stop a person. As a result, in 1904, the Thompson-Lagarde tests were carried out to determine the optimal caliber of the pistol.
A page from the German manual for P08 with a picture of the device of the "snail" store. Photo by Alain Daubresse, website www.littlegun.be
In a barnyard in Chicago, a wide variety of pistols were fired at cattle and horses. They also shot at suspended human corpses and carefully studied the consequences of the hits.
As a result, it was concluded that the caliber of the pistol must be at least .45 inches.
In March 1907, a new competition was announced. 13 models were presented, of which in the end only three remained: "Savage", "Colt" and "Luger", while a small number of Luger pistols for participation in this competition were released just under the new American cartridge .45 ACP. It is known that 45 of them were produced chambered for .5 caliber. It is interesting that one copy of such a pistol in the crisis year of 2010 was auctioned for $ 522. And in the entire history of the production of Luger pistols, under the .000 ACP cartridge, two (according to some sources, three) pistols were assembled.
All American Lugers carried the United States coat of arms on the upper side of the chamber.
A very rare model M1902 with the US coat of arms on the chamber. Photo by Gunsinternational.com
Although the attempt to sell the Lugers to the American military ended in failure, the same pistols were sold quite successfully on the civilian market.
Major American importers and distributors of these pistols included Abercrombie Fitch and Stoger, the latter even registering the Luger trademark in its own name. It quickly became a popular (second only to Colt pistols) commercial product in the American civilian market, so it was sold and imported into the United States in huge quantities until the mid to late 1930s.
Germany
P08 release in 1943 by H. Krieghoff waffenfabrik - Suhl, Germany. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
As for Germany, the first to adopt the Luger pistol in this country was the navy, which had fewer financial restrictions on the acquisition of new weapons.
The fact is that usually on a German battleship there were about 250 rifles and 100 pistols, and on a light cruiser - 70 rifles and 50 pistols. Even submarines and those had up to 24 pistols, which were in service with the sailors of the prize party and officers.
The army was in no hurry to adopt the Luger pistol, but then changed its mind. The P04 pistol went to the navy, and the P08 went to the army. The order to accept the Luger pistol into service was signed by Kaiser Wilhelm II on August 22, 1908.
The initial order was for 50 pistols from DWM, followed by the deployment of production at the government plant in Erfurt to complete all peacetime shipments, which were valued at approximately 000 pistols!
Note that, having adopted the Luger into service, Germany faced a number of very specific difficulties.
Like many other samples of weapons of the early XNUMXth century, this pistol was not distinguished by manufacturability.
Thus, the Mauser-Werke AG company had to spend 12,5 man-hours to manufacture just one luger. With a sufficiently small mass of the pistol itself, 0,87 kg, in order to make it, it was necessary to process 6,1 kg of metal, and also perform 778 individual operations, 642 operations on machine equipment and 136 - performed manually.
In fact, the manufacture of a luger was the production of ... metal shavings and sawdust, that is, the transfer of valuable raw materials and materials to waste.
Finnish parabellum. Lugerman Photos
In 1939, the cost of a Mauser Luger pistol was 11,5 Reichsmarks, and a store was 3,15 Reichsmarks, and the cost with two stores was 17,8 Reichsmarks.
Moreover, the company sold it to the Wehrmacht much more expensive - for 32 Reichsmarks, while the 98k rifle cost only 70 Reichsmarks, and the MG-34 machine gun (itself very expensive and, as a result, replaced by a more technologically advanced and cheap MG-42) cost the Wehrmacht 300 Reichsmark.
Finnish parabellum. View of the receiver. Lugerman Photos
It is interesting that the naval model and the army model were different from the beginning.
So, the naval model was distinguished by the presence of a two-position sight and a 150 mm barrel, but it did not have a fuse in the handle. In 1914, this model was equipped with a 200 mm barrel, designated Model 1914 or Model 08/14.
A special holster made it possible to use it as an attachment butt. Also, a specially designed snail drum magazine with a capacity of 32 rounds was released and produced for it. However, these magazines were later abandoned due to their too large size and weight, as well as their tendency to delay when firing.
Pistols with such magazines were also used in the army. They were used to arm assault units, which were actively used at the very end of the war.
Swedish volunteers of the Finnish army with parabellums, and the one on the left is armed with a PPD-34 submachine gun
The main manufacturer of lugers for Germany was DWM.
However, a number of other companies were also involved in their production to meet the needs that arose during the war. Here is a short list of these businesses, the names of which were usually stamped on the flat top surface of the locking levers:
- DWM (Deutsche Waffen und Munitionfabrik) - Karlsruhe, Germany,
- Erfert Arsenal - Erfert, Germany,
- Spandau - Spandau, Germany,
- Simpson & Co - Suhl, Germany,
- Mauser - Oberndorf, Germany,
- Krieghoff (H. Krieghoff waffenfabrik) - Suhl, Germany.
In addition, several foreign companies were licensed to manufacture lugers:
- Vickers (Vickers - Armstrong Limited) - Great Britain,
- Waffenfabrik Bern - Switzerland.
After the First World War, the Lugers remained in service with the German army and in this role continued to be produced until 1942, when they were replaced in production by the P.38 pistols from Walter.
After the defeat in the First World War, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, a number of restrictions were imposed on Germany in the military sphere. In particular, pistols could have a barrel length of more than 100 mm and a caliber of no more than 8 mm.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, on the basis of the Luger pistol, several carbines were fired, and one Luger even presented to H. Maxim! Photo by Simpson Ltd.
It was on such a pistol that it was possible to put an optical sight!
So it was no longer possible to produce lugers in their previous form.
But already in 1920, the Zimson arms company in the city of Suhl began producing Luger pistols for the needs of the police and Reichswehr officers in small batches.
In 1925, the company "Henrich Krieghoff" joined in their production. At the same time, the specialists of the Mauser company were able to resume the manufacture of lugers in Switzerland and their assembly was organized in Finland.
"Luger" or "Parabellum" even in these difficult conditions did not give up their positions, which best of all speaks about its quality ...
To be continued ...
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