[Thor]

A friend of mine's Father here in Albuquerque recently purchased a 1915 DWM Artillery Luger. The obvious thing is this Luger's grips are not marked with a large red nine but a smaller red nine. Take a look at the photos for your study and review. One thing sticks out in my mind, see if you find it too! Thanks for your time and comments.


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[Jan C Still]

Thor
Interesting presentation of 1915 DWM artillery with small Red grips. See "CENTRAL POWERS PISTOLS AND ACCESSORIES 1900-1918 : German (non-P08) Pistols & Holsters, Two nice RED NINE C96s" for a presentation of a Red 9 Broom with small Red 9 grips.

The right receiver, barrel and breech block all bear the proof eagle most often identified on Erfurt Lugers. One explanation is that the government employed inspector that spent most of his time at Erfurt (and used this style of proof eagle), spent some time at DWM during 1915 inspecting the LP08. This is the first time that I have observed the Erfurt style proof eagle on a 1915 dated DWM LP08. See the post below for information covering 1915-1918 dated DWM's with Erfurt style test eagles.

* ERFURT PROOFS ON DWM LUGERS Jan C Still
------------------------ http://www.gunboards.com/luger/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=595
Jan

 

[keoki7]

Ted, cute little nines. What are the bizarre stampings on the left side of the receiver? I have never seen nines on any Lugers other than 1917 LP08's.

 

[Thor]

Thanks Jan, the point I mentioned in the first message was I also saw the Erfurt Eagle and that is what really threw me for a loop!! (One thing sticks out in my mind, see if you find it too!) I knew the left three acceptance markings looked like DWM markings but the Eagle was wrong for them! I appreciate knowing more about this strange and unique DWM Artillery.

George, I thought perhaps the 90 was some kind of weapon number so we checked the grip straps and the area below the lanyard loop staple and found no additional markings like that. I have never seen this before in that postion either. An interesting Luger and one that will not be touched by TLSS other than to observe and enjoy it.

 

[Vlim]

Hi Jan,

I believe your explanation of the Erfurt inspector(s) spending most of their time in Erfurt, then moving to DWM for a while, can be backed by some info in DWM's company history. It appears that during the 6 years before WW1, from 1908 - 1914, DWM mostly worked on commercial and export military contracts, requiring little proofing of German military contract weapons. It was customary for the German army to have as much of peacetime production in government arsenals as possible.

It's therefore not unlikely that the start of WW1 and the increase of German military arms at DWM prompted for additional German military inspectors and it would make a lot of sense that one or more Erfurt inspectors were temporarily stationed at DWM to fill in the gap.

 

[Ron Smith]

Vlim, The extent of your knowledge is amazing. You are a walking encyclopedia!
Nice, interesting LP.08, I love the "unique". And this truly is a unique pistol. I would love to run across one like it.

Ron

 

[Jan C Still]

Vlim
Very useful information from the DWM history.
Jan

 

[Guest]

Ted I finally got logged in OK to this sight with some help from the other members. Isn't it funny how unique Lugers like this still are popping up now and then? My Father is 71 now and he always wanted a Artillery and now he has one. Boy is he happy with this one. He was wanting to get an appraisal on this and I think this is the best place to get one. Any comments? Thanks Don

 

[Vlim]

Ron,

Am sitting behind my PC with about 30 kilos of books within grabbing distance.
That helps

The problem (but an interesting one) with the company history is that it was compiled from a variety of sources, randomly stating interesting facts. So it takes a lot of 'reading between the lines' as well as some filtering of pre-war nazi-era garbage.

What I really like is that it's often possible to back Jan's statistics and observations up with contemporary references.

Since there's a limit to the number of guns we can own over here, I decided to compensate with documentation

 

[Heinz]

And those of us who all benefit from your documentation thank you!

 

[Ron Smith]

Genius is not always knowing the answer, but knowing where to find it!
Credit, where credit is due! Ron