Thanks to the Allies, Germany went 0-2 in World Wars. P.38s were produced at three different locations during the war. Though the P.38 never really replaced the Luger, the Germans sure tried, because they made over a million of them from 1939 to 1945 in three different factories.Ī late war P.38, made in the Spreewerke factory. Like the Luger, the P.38's magazine held eight cartridges, and fired the 9mm Luger cartridge. Of course, after the first double-action pull, the pistol ejected the spent cartridge and loaded a fresh one from the magazine automatically, and the subsequent rounds were all fired single-action. Granted, it was a longer, heavier pull than the single action, but it was simple, and in a battlefield situation, Simple is Good. This meant that a soldier could carry the P.38 with a round in the chamber, hammer down, safely, and all he had to do to get the pistol into action was pull the trigger. Secondly, the P.38 was one of the first double-action semi-auto pistols fielded to a military force. First, it was of course cheaper to manufacture. Especially when you’re gearing up to conquer Europe, and maybe the world ( which thankfully didn't turn out so well), you’ve probably got better things you could spend marks on.Īccepted by Germany in 1938 (hence the designation), the P.38 offered some significant advantages over the old Luger. And honestly, when it comes to winning battles and wars, pistols really have a small role to play (unless you’re Sergeant York, but he had balls the size of cantaloupes, and the marksmanship skills to go with them, which makes him the exception that proves the rule), so equipping your armed forces with hand-fitted, expensive pistols doesn’t make much sense.
See, the Luger, fine pistol and incredible example of Old World craftsmanship as it was, simply was too labor intensive and therefore too expensive to produce. The Germans were looking for a military side arm to replace the legendary P.08 Luger pistol. The P.38 has its roots in pre-war Nazi Germany. Though it needs no introduction, for the benefit of the uninitiated I'll go into some detail here.
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