[english]

What are the "necessary qualifications" for a PP or PPK to be classified as a "late war 'military' pistol". A lot of late war German pistols lack the proper military acceptance stamp. Also, for the late war PPK pistols, Jan (Axis Pistol book) lists the number range up to 424619K. My PPKs' serial # is 426730K ? Are these no. set in stone?
Thanks for reading, Joe

 

[Lloyd in Vegas]

Joe,

To qualify as a late war military finish accepted PP or PPK it would have to have the waffenamt acceptance stamp which was E/WaA359 for these pistols. It is typically found on the left side frame and slide.

Now, there are eagle N (E/N) commercial proof Nazi Era pistols that were certainly privately purchased/secured by officers, political leaders etc.--these would only have the E/N Nazi era commercial proof mark and NO military acceptance waffenamt stamp. Commercial PPKs with the E/N mark are in the range of around 359000K--431000K (there were around 34,000 PPKs that were commerical production in this serial range). I have a German Kommer Model 4 pistol that was made in 1940/41 with only E/N marks but I would not be surpirsed if this pistol was a military private purchase or in some way connected with the Nazi war machine. The German military used every available pistol they could get heir hands on both domestically and in conquered territories or countries and were still looking for more supply. So just because your PPK does NOT have a military acceptance stamp does not mean it was not involved with the German WWII war effort in some manner or way.

 

[mrfarb]

What about the late ac marked PP's that lack any proofing at all? Mine is matching, serial #382701p but does not have any proof marks at all, including the EagleN proofs. I was always told these were mismatched pistols- mine matches.

 

[Mark]

It believed by some collectors that when the Americans captured the Walter factory they had guns assembled as souvenirs from left over parts.

Guns were in various stages of assembly. Your pistol must have been assembled before the factory was captured and was waiting to get proof tested when it was "captured".

After the factory fell, the workers didn't care about keeping the guns matching and worked on supplying guns to GI's for smokes or rations.

Here is a link to an AC45 that I own which is all matching but missing the final acceptance stamp. So it had been proof tested and was waiting for the final OK to go into service when it was captured.

http://www.p38guns.com/AC45nofinalproof.htm

Mark