I want to be clear on the points that I tried to make. The beginning of W-SS OKH armament being late 1940/41 is no theory its documented fact. It is correct to say that many other divisions and other size units of the Army and LW were also being raised and rebuilt in this same time frame, much more than W-SS even but the fact remains that the W-SS was a totally new requirement that had to be accommodated and photograph evidence shows that P08 were very dominant with them during those first years and even beyond. It makes sense to me that the Army (OKH) was willing to allocate P08 to WSS in 41-43 in order to keep most all P.38 production for themselves. Clearly P35b and P35p production augmented issues in big way to army, LW and SS. For sure WSS received very high percentage of P35b by late 42 and later. The WSS had over 900,000 men pass thru it’s ranks son it was no tiny force.
I have repeatedly stated that I believe the SS receive both black and wooden griped byf Lugers. I’m far from sure that super condition wooden griped byf Lugers particularly the earlier 1941 examples with double matching mags sell for a dime less than a black griped example in similar condition.
As for collector boosting, yes it happens with these and everything else of value. My advice is to first off make sure the black grips are original to the period and second make sure that the gun is at least an s block are later. We can argue about when these grips were first introduced and then used in regular production all day and night but my advice is that if the gun is earlier than the s block (t and u are much better still) then it is probably boosted. I make an exception for the correct letter block back in 1940 where some seem proven to have been used for probable field testing. My last piece of advice is to make sure that the condition of the grips is consistent with the finish on the gun! Sounds obvious but I’ve seen worn beat up finish guns with minty Bakelite grips and minty finish guns with dinged beat up grips.
I can not say much more about the last letter block going to Portugal and Bulgaria but what I said before other than there is a LOT of inconsistencies to what many people think when it comes to German war production and allocation and actual use. The Germans produced and obtained at least 4 million pistols during the third Reich so I can say with some confidence that 10,000 did not break the bank. Portugal was a major spy and espionage base for the Germans and were at least on the down low very sympathetic and helpful to the Germans, Bulgaria was a nominal fighting ally in an important geographical position for operations in the east and balkans. Keep in mind that 20,000 banner police, commercial and contract Lugers were also produced wartime.
I’m not at all convinced that Ralph Shattuck coined the BW name (even if he claimed he did) he certainly popularized early on and I’m not sure it makes any difference to the applicability of the name. Who coined “brown Bess”, peacemaker, or grease gun??
