Second, Walther built a new factory in the West German town of Ulm on the Donau (Danube) river. First, the fledgling North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) decided to allow West Germany to reestablish its armed forces in 1955. The return of the P 38 during the Cold War was the culmination of two larger events. The P 38 used a simple and robust magazine (left) unlike the more frail model used by the P08 Luger (right). The P.38 was also widely used as a “communist” weapon in many Cold War thrillers in film and television. Many WWII themed movies and television shows made during this time featuring the P.38. Its photo credits are much too numerous to list but the P 38s film career undoubtedly contributed to its continued popularity among civilians.
The P 38 operated well with blank ammunition, securing its place on the big and small screens. In the last 15 years Eastern European countries, and former Soviet Republics, have released numbers of P.38s, presumably taken from German Forces during and at the end of the war.īecause of its sinister wartime image and rakish appearance, the P 38 became a mainstay of the Motion Picture and Television industries from the 1950s to the late 1970s. Second hand wartime German P 38s have found their way to France, Austria, East Germany, Morocco, Finland, Vietnam, and to America, in the duffel bags of returning GIs. Again, these were leftovers of Nazi German production and used to rearm the Czechoslovakian military and police. However, the French did manage to produce and take delivery of about 55,000 P.38s.Ĭzechoslovakia also assembled P 38 pistols from the Spreewerke factory located there. Consequently, the French closed the Oberndorf factory. There was a wartime agreement among the Allies not to continue production of German weapons in their sectors after the war. In early 1946, the Soviet Union objected to the continued French production of the P.38. The blued pistols are prized collector’s items today. A few of these pistols actually received a blue finish and were issued to the French Police. They have earned the moniker “Gray Ghost” among collectors. These pistols have a unique gray phosphate exterior finish and distinctive steel grips. The late war Mauser factory code and the year of production are on these pistols, i.e.
They continued production into early 1946.
The French occupied the Mauser Factory in Oberndorf, Germany and began to assemble P.38s from the thousands of parts on hand. Post war use of the P 38 came immediately after V-E day.
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