WALTHER P 38
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When Hitler became the full power in the Germany in 1933, he'd began the
preparations for the war. The development of the new pistole, to replace aging
Lugers was one of such preparations. Carl Walther company began development of
the new military pistole in mid-1930's, and in 1938 the Werhmacht (German Army)
adopted Walther MP model experimental pistole as "Pistole 38".
The P38 featured a recoil-operated, locked breech design with verticlally
tilting blocking bar that connectet the short moving barrel and the slide. It
also featured short, top-open slide and, first of the full-power military
handguns in the world - the Double action trigger. It also featured manual
safety, mounted on the left side of the slide, and loaded chamber indicator at
the rear side of the slide. The gun was equipped with the slide catch at the
left side of the frame. The frame and slide were all-steel, with blued or
polished finish. The grip plates were plastic. The magazine catch was located at
the bottom of the grip
After the WW2, the restored Carl Walther Sportwaffen company introduced an
aluminium-frame variant of P38, called the P1, that served as a standart issue
sidearm of the Bundeswehr (West German Army). A variant with the shorter barrel,
called P4, was developed for police use. The Walther company still manufactured
the P38s for commercial market.
All in all, the P38 was wery advanced (for its time) pistol, reliable, accurate
and comfortable to carry and fire, and it obviously set the trend for the
after-WW2 combat DA pistols.
Besides the Walther company, the Mauser firm played a major role in the
manufacture of this weapon during World War II. Between 1942 and 1946, Mauser
produced approximately 380,000 pistols of this type. Walther manufactured
approximately 580,000 between 1940 and 1945. Mauser stopped production of the
Luger pistol at the end of 1942. The last lot of P.08s, though proofed by the
Heereswaffenampt, were not even accepted by the military and instead sold to
Portugal (P.08, code byf42 Ser. No. 685n-5253n). P.38 production at the Mauser
factory began in November 1942. All Mauser made P.38s either went to the
military or the police forces. There were no commercial sales.
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