genegwf Posted 10 February , 2017 Share Posted 10 February , 2017 A friend showed me WW2 bring back P08 Luger. The date on the barrel is 1918. The serial number is 1539 with what appears to be the letter L above the numbers 884 at the point where the barrel joins the receiver. The pistol came with one wooden base magazine numbered 5918. The pistol is unit marked on the rear of the receiver and along the back strap of the grip. The markings are P.A.O. 69 and the same in both places. Any idea on the unit markings ? Gene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robins2 Posted 10 February , 2017 Share Posted 10 February , 2017 a number of WW1 lugers were reissued to police units I believe the unit marking P.A.O may refer to the city police station and the number is the weapon issue number regards Bob R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 10 February , 2017 Share Posted 10 February , 2017 Out from home where my reference material is but I think this is a Weimar one, Polizei-Amt Osnabruck. But, it will help to have a photograph as letter and number size are often significant factors in identifying these marks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 10 February , 2017 Share Posted 10 February , 2017 Well, back home and my reference works don't help a lot except to point to this being a Weimar marking... "P.O." by itself, according to the regulations of 1922 was "Polizeischule Ostpreußen"... "A" would normally be "Amt" or "Abteilung", but does not seem to feature in the Weimar regulations... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikB Posted 10 February , 2017 Share Posted 10 February , 2017 Back in the '80s, I had a 1917 DWM Luger which I shot regularly for years. It was bought from an RFD who had half a dozen on sale - reasonable to think that it reached UK as a WW1 bringback - there were no unit markings of any sort on it. To me, the reissue marking suggested above looks plausible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retlaw Posted 10 February , 2017 Share Posted 10 February , 2017 I had a brought back so called Luger, shot in comps for years, then along come blair with his poison tounge, I cut mine in half, wrote to home office, sent photo and they came back i could be prosecuted for illegal deactivation, gave them the finger and said go on then we wil all have a laugh in court, took it to police headquarters and they were happy, and said can we photocopy it, we've never seen such a good shot of a rifled barrel before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegwf Posted 10 February , 2017 Author Share Posted 10 February , 2017 Such a sad ending for such a nice gun.... But a beautiful job of machine work ! Gene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikB Posted 11 February , 2017 Share Posted 11 February , 2017 (edited) 10 hours ago, Retlaw said: I had a brought back so called Luger, shot in comps for years, then along come blair with his poison tounge, I cut mine in half, wrote to home office, sent photo and they came back i could be prosecuted for illegal deactivation, gave them the finger and said go on then we wil all have a laugh in court, took it to police headquarters and they were happy, and said can we photocopy it, we've never seen such a good shot of a rifled barrel before. Have you still got the mainspring/bellcrank and striker/sear assemblies? It woudn't make sense to try to halve the springs, but the solid parts would look good in there. Just for fun, I once wrote a description of exactly how a Luger works - it took about 2 sides of A4 just to tell the story of one round fired... Still fascinates people, doesn't it, that gun. Edited 11 February , 2017 by MikB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob lembke Posted 11 February , 2017 Share Posted 11 February , 2017 My father carried a Luger (in the Army, and then with a police carry permit, he worked as a bodyguard, and also Schwartzes Reichswehr) for almost 10 years, and ran P08s to Turkey in 1922) and told me that he first heard the term "Luger" after he came to the US in 1926. He called it "Parabellum". Of course, Latin for "for war". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikB Posted 11 February , 2017 Share Posted 11 February , 2017 (edited) 3 hours ago, bob lembke said: My father carried a Luger (in the Army, and then with a police carry permit, he worked as a bodyguard, and also Schwartzes Reichswehr) for almost 10 years, and ran P08s to Turkey in 1922) and told me that he first heard the term "Luger" after he came to the US in 1926. He called it "Parabellum". Of course, Latin for "for war". I think 'Parabellum' was DWM's telex callsign, and may derive from a quote from the Roman Vegetius "si vis pacem, para bellum" - if you want peace, prepare war. The name 'Luger' was certainly not commonly current in Germany in the 60s and 70s. I thought it was more usually known as the 'Null-acht' ( (pistole) 08)? Edited 11 February , 2017 by MikB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retlaw Posted 11 February , 2017 Share Posted 11 February , 2017 5 hours ago, MikB said: Have you still got the mainspring/bellcrank and striker/sear assemblies? It woudn't make sense to try to halve the springs, but the solid parts would look good in there. Just for fun, I once wrote a description of exactly how a Luger works - it took about 2 sides of A4 just to tell the story of one round fired... Still fascinates people, doesn't it, that gun. There could be some bits in my workshop, haven't been in recently, all I wanted to do was keep my Pistole 08, it was given to me by a WW1 soldier when I was an apprentice nigh on 70 years ago, eventually after a lot of bother got it put on my ticket, those pistols are the most natural handling and pointing weapons ever made, fired 1000's of home loads thro it, my other favourite was a .44 Remington charcoal burner, would put up some beautiful groups with a lead ball, but hopeless with a bullet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 12 June , 2019 Share Posted 12 June , 2019 Welcome.I recently got P08 from 1910 DWM production. It has strange shortcut on the grip - H.Q. 37 What is this military unit?Best wishes Kordian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 9 July , 2019 Share Posted 9 July , 2019 On 12/06/2019 at 19:53, MTWIU said: Welcome.I recently got P08 from 1910 DWM production. It has strange shortcut on the grip - H.Q. 37 What is this military unit?Best wishes Kordian Welcome to the GWForum! Sorry for a late reply - celebrating my birthday for too long! That is a very nice and rare find! the 1909 regulations indicate that marking is for the Grosses Hauptquartier seiner Majestaet des Kaisers (waffe) 37 and so was in the vicinity of Kaiser Bill in WW1! Julian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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