Grandfather's Gun from WWII.?

Question

While going through my grandfather's estate, (he died a couple of years ago), I found a WWII service pistol tucked away in a closet.

It's dated 1937 across the top, and as best I could tell from the internet its a Luger. It had an S/## on it as well but I can't remember what the number was (04, maybe?).

I then found out that the Luger, especially that model, was a German gun. My Grandfather was stationed on Tinian Island in the Pacific for almost his entire service (specifically 1944-1945), so I have no idea how he could have come across this specific firearm.

If anyone who has any info on WWII firearms and service pistols can help me figure out where this gun came from it would be greatly appreciated.

I already looked it up on Wikipedia and some auction sites but am still unclear on the origins of the gun in relation to my Grandfather.

A. My Grandmother died in 1973.
B. My Step-Grandmother died last week, which is why I was back at their house.
C. No one knew my Grandfather on Tinian until after he died. He never talked about the war. We found out after he died that he was on the ground crew for the Enola Gay. So a certain amount of guilt as well as "secrecy" was linked to his silence.
D. There are no other markings on the gun, other than the date and model number(?) mentioned earlier.
E. Wikipedia and Auction sites show that the Luger had dates stamped across the top of the gun near the base of the barrel.

Answer 1

The weapon may have made it's way from the ETO with a airman or serviceman stationed in a occupied area who opted to continue the war in the PTO after the surrender of Germany. He may have had quite a few and traded them for PTO souvenirs such as a samurai swords etc. One fellow with the RAF went from occupied Europe to Australia and traded buttons from a Luftwaffe jacket for a Japanese rifle.
The date 1937 indicates it may not be a single action Luger P-08 but a double action Walther P-36 as the Germans adopted the P-36 in that year. If it is double action or it has a slide action and not the toggle ( knee ) action bolt it is a P-36. It may not be as beautiful as a P-08 but as weapon to be used in combat it is a better arm.
Your choice of words shows a more probable cause for your grandfathers reticence in speaking of his war years. He had no guilt about his war record but was tired of defending it against those who had not been there and could never understand why some horrible events are necessary.

Answer 2

If it really is a Luger it has a very specific action... called a "Butterfly" action... when you pull the slide back the top of the pistol will come up like a drawbridge... can't mistake it... the Luger was the only handgun ever built with that action.

I wouldn't surprise me if your Grandfather was on Tinian but I would guess he got it by trading with another soldier or marine who had fought in Europe and brought it with him. Since the Luger fired 9 MM parabellum Ammo, he could not have readily found ammo for it in the South Pacific so I would guess it was just a trophy.

On top of that, a lot of Americans took Lugers off of captured German Officers (it was an officers sidearm) and, if those American soldiers were later captured and they had the luger on them, the German soldier who captured them would use it to blow the brains out of the American soldier... so collecting Lugers in the European theater wasn't all that popular.... but having one in the South Pacific was safer since the Japs really didn't care.

Finally, Lugers were considered junk. Because of their unique action, they are notoriously unreliable and tend to jam on every other round. Most German Officers preferred the P-38 or, when they captured an American Officer, they just took his Cal .45 model 1911 and used it.

Answer 3

Luger look alikes were manufactured in many places. Guns usually do not have dates stamped on slide. Your Grandfather may have put it there as a reminder of its age. Check your local library for gun reference books. Lugers were not especially good guns. The slide mechanism is hard to operate quickly and is overly complicated. It frequently jams because of the coil spring shape weakens faster than a normal straight spring. If not kept clean, dirt in the slide also causes jamming. The "Nazi" image is what makes them valuable. If Asian built it will be less valuable than a true German model.

Answer 4

The most likely answer is that the Luger was taken off a Japanese soldier who took it off a Chinese soldier.
The weapons used by the Nationalist Chinese forces were German in origin.These weapons were made for export to China.For example their rifles were mausers.Their pistols were lugers and mauser broomhandles and their helmets were the M35 model German helmet.And they also used potato masher grenades.

Answer 5

Germany did supply a small number of Lugers to Japan , since the Jap pistols were pretty bad.

Answer 6

Your grandfather may have received it as a gift from a friend who was in the war on the German front. Without him to ask... PBS has a show called "The History Detectives." They track down stuff like that for people. Contact them.

Answer 7

Awesome Find, many troops were deployed in europe and the pacific theaters. You can requst your grandfathers military records through the VA, unfortunately lost thousands of records during a fire in St Louis.
Battlefields are littered with weapons I am surprised you don't have his M-1 carbine

Answer 8

the luger PO.8 and the Nambu look horrifically alike. he could have gotten it off the corpse of an american who served in the Europe campaign, or off a wealthy jap. either way, their nice guns.

Answer 9

It's not only valuable to your wallet it's valuable to your family history. Keep the gun and find out more about how your grandfather can across it. maybe he was on a black op or something.

Answer 10

if it's a luger, than you are very lucky. those are highly valued. go to Auctionarms.com, you cancheck out prices for your firearm there.