P08 Luger serial # has three digits..not four

D

DTW2012

Inactive
Hi,

From what I've read, I should expect my P08 luger to have a serial # with four digits or four digits and a letter.

However, it has only three digits.

Do I have a problem here or just need additional resources to place this?

(s/42 with a good deal of its "strawing" and a unit inscription placing it with a Bavarian machine gun squad)

thank you
 
German military numbering always began at 1 (no leading zeros), then to 9999, then to 1a to 9999a, 1b to 9999b and so on for each manufacturer in each year.

So there would be a fair number of three digit numbers, even if those with letter suffixes are not included.

But there may be a problem with that gun. S/42 is a WWII era code for Mauser, starting in 1934, but the Germans did not use unit markings in WWII, and by 1934 there was no separate Bavarian army. Maybe I am missing something but could the gun be mismatched?

Pictures would help.

Jim
 
Sorry, I was away on business for a few weeks.
I will take and post pics ASAP.
Thanks.

Note.. The 3 digit serial do match on all points and the last two on the toggle.
 
here are a few pics
 

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and two more..

my error on the statement of S/42..that is not present.
I must have been reading about so many others that do have that..and it stuck.
and the Bavarian may actually be Belgium..the owner of the shop where I purchased it mis - states names or details (like Parker/LC Smith/AH Fox) all the time. He kept saying bavarian..until I found that he wrote belgium.
 

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really..that's very interesting

here are a few markings

(not sure if the one on the barrell is a marking or something else)

I may have to try again..I couldn't keep the phone steady enough for a sharp close pic.
 

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OK, that S/42 really had me going as the gun is clearly marked as DWM. Is there a date on the top of the front receiver ring?

The B in the unit mark is for Bavaria, which at that start of WWI was a separate Kingdom, though in a mililtary alliance with Prussia, the leading German state. "Germany" technically did not yet exist as a unified nation; it was still made up of several smaller states.

B. 4 R. M.G. 75 indicates the pistol number 75 of the machinegun company of the 4th Bavarian Regiment or, in the order on the gun, Bavarian 4 Regiment, Machinegun [company] # 75.

Jim
 
James, the German Reich of 1871 was a unified nation, with a head of state and a constitution, a two-chamber congress and a single foreign policy. The interior of each state was managed more by the individual states, more CSA like than USA, but compared to the predecessor northern confederation it was a unified nation and not just a lose group of states.
 
Technically true, but there were some 27 of those "states" in the German Empire, including Bavaria, which was a Kingdom headed by Ludwig III (the "mad" Ludwig II was his cousin), so it is a bit hard to see it as a "unified nation", or even as a federal system. The Bavarian Army was at least nominally a separate entity, headed by its crown prince, Rupprecht, who had the misfortune to have his throne removed before he had a chance to sit down.

Jim
 
Chamber date: I don't know...recent purchase and I'm just getting to know it. How do you determine the chamber date ?
 
The chamber date is the date over the chamber, on top of the gun in plain view.
If it has one, not all do. A military model should, a commercial model not.
 
Ah, thanks. That would be obvious...
Mine does not have that date.
Were the dates stamped on pistols regardless of which military ...
 
Something isn't adding up here. It has Imperial proofs on it, and a regimental assignment, but no chamber date. It's definitely a military gun.
 
German officers could purchase their own handguns, so it's not surprising that commercial guns made it to the front in large numbers. Once there, I'm sure more than one officer gun landed in the hands of a NCO who had to have their guns inventoried.
 
I know of two P-08 s with the same serial number ! War time confusion causes many irregular situations.
 
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