Walther P1/P38: Eighty Years of Excellence

October 4, 2017  
|  1 Comments
Categories: Learnin'

When most people think of World War II German pistols (assuming they think about such things at all) the first thing that usually pops up is the famous P08 Luger, and with good reason. The Luger is a sexy little beast that’s achieved iconic status with shooters and collectors the world over. Even the standard 9x19mm round that most of us use (at least some of the time) is commonly called “9mm Luger.”

No doubt the Luger is a finely engineered piece of firearms technology. The problem was, it was too fine.

P38

Lugers were the standard-issue sidearm for the German military from their adoption in 1909 until 1938. They fought the Great War and saw the Nazi rise to power. But damn were they expensive to build, and a pain in the ass to maintain in the field. When Adolf Hitler began the massive rearmament of Germany in 1935, equipping the new Wehrmacht with Lugers was cost-prohibitive to say the least. On top of that, the tolerances on the Luger were so tight that even small quantities of dirt or mud would cause them to jam, which isn’t exactly ideal when one’s life might depend on the functionality of one’s sidearm. Clearly, the time had come for the Luger to be replaced.

Carl Walther

Fortunately, the Carl Walther company had been experimenting with a new pistol designed as a service weapon for the police and military. Walther had seen some success with its PP line of duty pistols, and decided to kick it up a notch and develop a full-size sidearm for the army. Work on the design began in 1932. Six years and several prototypes later, the result was the soon-to-be iconic-in-its-own right P38, a design that was literally years ahead of its time.

The P38 was the standard-issue sidearm of the Wehrmacht throughout World War II. Thanks to insatiable demands on German industrial capacity, plenty of existing Lugers saw service as well. The demand for the P38 was so high, in fact, that the Walther plants couldn’t keep up, prompting contracts for the guns to be let to both Mauser and Spreewerk. The P38 pictured here is one such contract gun.

Want to know more? 

Check out Walther P38/P1: 8 Decades of Excellence on The Mag Life.

 

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Bucky Lawson

Bucky Lawson

About the Author

William "Bucky" Lawson has had a thing for military history since the sixth grade when he picked up a book about World War I fighter aces. Since then he has studied warriors from Ancient Greece to the modern day, with a special emphasis on World War II. He's a member of the Saber & Scroll Historical Society, the Historical Studies Honor Society, the Society for Military History, and Pi Gamma Mu (that's not an Asian stripper- it's the International Honor Society in Social Sciences). He has an unabashed love of the USA, military surplus bolt action rifles, AK-47s, and Walther handguns. He despises incabination and likes hamburgers, dogs, and cigars, but really who doesn't? Sissies and vegans, that's who. Bucky contributes to Strategy & Tactics Press, has a Masters Degree in Military History, and will probably proclaim himself an academic and wear one of those jackets with the patches on the elbows soon. Could be he'll run down a PhD, maybe he'll go hunting instead - Bucky likes the charred flesh of something that once had a parent, especially if he killed it himself. He is currently trying to figure out a way to export Texas politics to his native Virginia. Breach-Bang-Clear readers who talk to Bucky will be happy to know he's only half the redneck he sounds and really isn't inbred at all. Or not too much anyway, which is why he gets along so well with our other polrumptions. You can find historical bibliognost on Linkedin here.

1 Comment

  1. Matt

    I always felt like Col. Barnsby, played by Harrison Ford in Force 10 From Navarone, whenever I fired mine. Ambushing those Germans and Chetniks in the mountains.

    Reply

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