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This handgun is most probably together with the Luger P08 one of
the most well known pistols and this handgun is often mistaken as a Luger P08,
by people not familiar with handguns, as the shape of these weapons is
basically the same.
This handgun was developed in the pre-World War 2 period and was
an extremely significant 9mm parabellum military handgun. This was the
handgun that the German army chose to replace the Luger P08 as their official
side arm. It was and still is a handgun superior to the Luger P08 in most
ways and shows the improvement in the development of handguns for this
period.
What made the Walther P38
so successful was the fact that it was the first successful high-powered
combat handgun to have a double action trigger. This was the first pistol
that could be carried fully loaded with a round in the chamber and the hammer
down safely and to fire the pistol by pulling the trigger. The P38 also have
a slide-mounted, hammer dropping safety which to this day is probably the
most popular safety system in use for double action autoloaders. The P38 was produced in
huge quantities beginning of 1940.The P38 was also much easier to manufacture
than the Luger P08. The production of
the P08 was ended early in World War 2. World War 2 caused
expanded use of the 9mm parabellum cartridge internationally and in huge quantities.
This fact made manufactures that never made these handguns change and start
producing handguns and ammunition. The tremendous amount of use of this
cartridge caused expansion of interest in 9mm parabellum and made it famous. The P38 was used by
countries’ armed forces such as France and Norway. As these weapons was captured from German forces and used to
stock their own armed forces.
Walther P38 is a
semi-automatic 9mm parabellum, ten shot magazine, 5 inch barrel, 8 ¾ overall length. It has checkered or grooved plastic grips,
fixed sights and it is blued. Walther HP adopted by the German military in
1939 produced by different markings, identified by code markings on the side
through 1945. Early Walthers produced
with high polished finish, are considered very collectable. The first few thousand had rectangular
firing pins and the Walther banner. The Post War Walther P38
has the same specifications as the World War model, manufactured by Carl
Walther Waffenfabrik in Germany. This
P38 has much improved workmanship and an alloy frame. The
P38 was used by our own police force as their official side arm. This replaced the Webley and Smith &
Wesson revolvers. The P38 was
replaced by the Beretta 92. This P38 was manufactured
in late 1945 at about the end of World War 2 as the allied forces surrounded
Germany. These pistols were manufactured under extreme conditions and the
workmanship and finish are not of the highest quality but it is a rare piece
and very collectable. The specimen shown was manufactured towards the end of
the War by Carl Walther and do not have the famous Walther banner. It has P38 stamped on the side together
with serial number. Not a commonly known fact
is that Manurhin in France also manufactured the P38 under license of
Walther. Not much is know about the
French made P38, but that Portuguese armed force used them during the 1970’s. P38’s manufactured during
World War 2 were fitted with grooved grips.
Reason being, the German soldiers complained that the checkered grips
collected mud and were difficult to clean.
The mud caused irritation of the skin. It was found that the grooved grips were easier to clean and
did not collect mud. This particular
piece has black grooved grips. |
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Walther’s
Model PP (Polizei Pistole) was first introduced in 1929 and is still in
production. It ranks amongst the most
interesting and earliest double action service pistol designs to reach a
series production and widespread use.
Almost from the day of its production, the PP became the standard
police handgun in Europe. Its issue
eventually spread into Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Its influence spread even further,
inspiring a host of derivative handgun designs from Walther as well as other
manufacturers. All these factors have
evolved to give the Model PP the honor of being, along with the P38,
Walther’s most influential handgun design. Manhurin
in France manufactured this particular firearm. Some may see the pistols manufactured by Manhurin as
imitations, but this is not the case.
Fritz Walther fled Germany in June 1945, carrying with him the
drawings of the PP. He also retained
the rights to the many Walther patents granted over the years. Accordingly, he was able to license production
of the PP in 1950 to the French firm Manufacture
de Machines de Haut-Rhin, better known as Manhurin. They began production of the PP in 1952 at
serial number 100 001. In 1973 the
company already made more than 700 000 PP’s and production at the Manhurin
factory stopped in the late 1980’s.
In 1987 the Walther factory in Ulm took over the PP and PPK production
while Manhurin dropped out of the business to concentrate on its own firearms
products. As a result PP type pistols
made by Manhurin are now collector’s items in their own right. The
PP was produced in caliber’s 6.35mm (pre-war models), .22LR (very rare),
7.65mm and 9mm short. The
PP is a semi-automatic pistol, 8 shot magazine, 3 7/8” barrel, 6 5/16”
overall length. It has fixed sights, checkered
plastic grips and is blued. In conclusion, the PP is a
well designed, well made gun with outstanding fit and finish. Its controls are well laid out for a
right-handed shooter, but is not impossible for left handed shooters to
manage. Considering its small size
and tight fitted bearing surfaces, the PP is quite reliable. Designed as a trustworthy police sidearm,
the PP served well this capacity for over 50 years. The PP’s importance has also inspired the design of virtually
every other modern double action automatic pistol. |
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It
is a very rare find in South Africa as only 7 000 of these firearms were ever
manufactured and then distributed all over the world. They were manufactured between 1974 and
1982. By 1974 the West German
Police commission made it clear that the next handgun adopted for the police
service in that country would use the 9mm Parabellum cartridge. Walther then introduced the P4,
considerably modified from the P38 in hopes of attracting police
business. At it introduction in 1974,
the P4 might have been dismissed by the casual observer as a P38 with a
shortened barrel. It was after all an
8-shot pistol in 9mm parabellum, it used the same magazine, it had the same
breech locking system. The frame on the P4 was
almost identical to the P38 in appearance, but in designing the P4, Walther
made 3 important changes in the frame.
One was the addition of a hexagonally shaped, hardened steel pin
located where the locking block under the rear end on the barrel recoiled
into the frame upon firing. This
steel re-enforced pin strengthened the lightweight aluminum alloy frame at
the point where it received the greatest stress. So successful did this simple addition prove that Walther has
since used it in all of its service pistols based on the P38’s short-recoil
system. It has even retrofitted the
reinforcing pin into the latest version of the P38 itself. Walther also shortened the
hammer on the P4. Not only did it
retain the capability for shooters to use thumb cocking for a single action
first shot, it did not form as prominent a spur as one finds on the P38
hammer. This also enhanced the P4’s
concealed carry capabilities. Walther also replaced the P38’s excellent smooth trigger
with a grooved type better suited to target shooting than to service or self
defense shooting. The most obvious
difference was in the barrel, which Walther made half an inch shorter than
the standard P38. The chief intent in
doing this was to improve the P4’s handling while still offering acceptable
ballistics. Official use of the P4 was
limited to the West German police which took approximately 6 500 P4’s. The West Berlin police also received 200
of these pistols, each marked by Manurhin and assembled in France by parts
supplied by Walther. The West German
police was not allowed by treaty to use German made weapons. Assembling the guns in France was simply a
loophole. Although the pistol was
hardly a commercial success, Walther’s experience with the P4 was valuable to
the company in several important ways.
First, Walther used what is learned from the P4 to create its next
generation of combat handguns. The
company also incorporated the P4’s safety system, which it took almost
unchanged from the PP Super and with only slight modifications in the
location and arrangement of operating controls, used in the later P5 and P88
series of handguns. Second, what
Walther learned from the P4 ultimately changed the P38. While the P38’s safety system remained
unchanged, Walther eventually incorporated the P4’s improved sights and
strengthened the frame into the P38 series, making that pistol a more
accurate and stronger weapon. |
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It
is a Walther PPK 7.65mm pistol. This particular
pistol was manufactured in France by Manurhin under license of Walther. The PPK is certainly Walther’s most famous
pistol ever. For the past 70 years,
the design of the PPK has not changed and this is most remarkable. At first glance, the PPK
appears to be a smaller version of the PP, but this exotic pistol acquired a
life of its own and in many ways, even surpassed its larger predecessor. PPK (Polizei Pistole
Kriminal) or Pistol for Undercover Police went into production in 1929,
shortly after the PP. Mechanically
the PPK is virtually the same as the PP, including such features as the
double action trigger, loaded chamber indicator and a wide choice of
calibers, finishes and options. The
main difference between the PPK and PP is the concealment factor. The PPK is easier concealed than the
PP. The PPK is not only shorter in
length and height, it is also lighter than the PP. The overall length of the PPK is 5.9”, barrel length is 3.3”
and a height of 3.9”. The PPK
magazine capacity is one round less than that of the larger PP. The PPK became successful
as a police pistol in the post war period, mainly among German, Austrian and
Danish officers. The PPK was also
popular in several armies and air forces.
The PPK was very successful in the espionage field as well. Many of the comments made in Ian Fleming’s
novel (featuring the fictional Cold War hero, James Bond) concerning the PPK
remain applicable even today. When the West German
police adopted the 9mm, P5, P6 and P7 service pistols beginning 1978 and
1979, the PPK’s days were numbered.
In other countries, newer handguns – notably the Smith & Wessons
Chiefs Special revolver and the Glock 19 automatic pistol have also made
inroads in the roles formerly served by the PPK. The Walther PPK is still
in production in the United States and Germany with no signs of slowing
down. With its good power-to-size
ratio, fame and reputation, the PPK should remain in production and service
for a long time to come. Even from a
company accustomed to producing classics as a matter of course, this is a
most impressive pistol. As stated earlier this
pistol was manufactured by Manurhin in France under licence of Walther. Production in France began in 1953 at
serial number 500001. Caliber choices
were 9mm short, 7.65mm and .22LR.
This particular pistol was manufactured between 1953 and 1956. This is clearly visible by the markings
found on the pistol when the Thalson Import Company in San Francisco handled
the importation of Walther pistols into the United States. |
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It is the last in the
“Model” range that was manufactured by Carl Walther. Carl Walther started production of the
Model 9 in 1921. At first the Model 9
created a sensation because it was rated as the smallest 6.35mm pistol. The specifications are
tabled below:
Despite its size the Model
9 was an efficient and practical design, much like the hammerless Model
1. The Model 9 also had a useful component
at the rear of the slide that held the striker, frame and slide
together. Another useful feature of
the Model 9 was a cocked-striker indicator.
This device, in the form of a signal pin, protruded from the rear of
the slide only when the pistol’s striker spring was compressed, indicating
that the gun was cocked. If the
striker was not cocked, the gun could not fire. Another safety device on the Model 9 was a manual safety
located on the left side of the frame that, for right handed shooters, fell
naturally under the right thumb. The Model 9 proved an unqualified success for Walther. No one up to that time had ever created
such a small pistol for the very popular 6.35mm cartridge. Figures indicate that over 30 00 Model 9’s
were manufactured between 1922 and 1929. Despite its success, Walther stopped production of the Model 9 in
1939 or 1940 because the company has to concentrate its energies on military
production. |
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Ms Rolien van der Berg and
References (Johannesburg, South Africa.
2003) |
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