[Dgiz]

OK, I will ask. Might as well show how much I don't know!
I have had many conversations regarding the use of the Reichsrevolver by the German Army during World War Two.
I understand that any pistol or revolver could be used during wartime. But there has always been speculation that Germany had issued the Reichsrevolver to the Volksstrum units near the end of the war. I have never seen photos of a WW2 German soldier with a Reichsrevolver or seen one with capture papers. I realize that capture papers don’t really show that a weapon was actually taken from a German soldier and could just be with a revolver taken from a private persons home. Although, I did read in Ezell’s HANDGUNS OF THE WORLD that the Modell 1879 and Modell 1883 continued to see service until 1945 (Page 103).
Where were the Reichsrevolvers when WW2 started? Were they still in use? Could they have been armories or were they already discarded as surplus?
Thanks for any information you can provide.
Dean

 

[Heinrich]

Dean,

I'm collecting and searching more than thirty years on Reichsrevolvers.
Neither in archives nor in the Armee- Verordnungsblatt or other official papers is documented that the German Army used in WWII Reichsrevolvers. I have never seen a photograph with Reichsrevolver carrying soldiers.

The only source of a late use? of those revolvers was a list of the Prussian Finance Administration, dated 1. January 1939. On this list was registered under position 321: Army revolver 79!
Purpose: Guarding of cash points and related buildings.

I have noticed that the last military cartridges for the revolvers were produced in 1916. May be that the Finance administration purchased their need (if they had) on the commercial market.

When such a "fact" is born, you can be sure that other writers picked it up and copy it. And then one is telling it another.

 

[Guest_V]

Heinrich - still no joy - it your mail but my reply bounced again.

Dean, according to all the German ex-service people I´ve ever talked to, the Luger (P 08) was regarded as second rate during WWII. The number of Lugers sold out of Russian arsenals can be taken as evidence of their capture while stored by the Wehrmacht. Battlefield weapons mainly remained in the ground. Front line troops had P 38s. These all used 9mm para. There was no service ammunition issued for the Reichsrevolver (black powder??). I haven´t even been able to find evidence of .30 Luger (7.65mm) ammunition being used during WWII.

 

[Edward Tinker]

quote:Originally posted by villiers

I haven´t even been able to find evidence of .30 Luger (7.65mm) ammunition being used during WWII.

This is interesting, and is something I wondered about. Here and there I hear about lugers brought back, every now and then as 7.65mm. If true and this might not be true, then would officers or whomever supplied their own Patrick?

Ed

 

[Guest_V]

Ed, as chance would have it, I was watching TV last night - a programme about US OSS operatives in Germany during WWII. Hitler´s body guard remarked on how lax security around the "Führer" was. He said that he was only armed with a 7.65 handgun. But I doubt whether this was 7.65 Luger. There would have to have been be a specific ordnance code for the .30 Luger - and I haven´t been able to find anything in the available literature.

 

[Dgiz]

Thanks Heinrich for the info, that is information I was looking for. As far as odd "Non-Issue, Non-approved" handguns being brought back, I was told by a vets son (who brought home a couple of pistols), that the soldiers either went through homes or had the citizens turn in any kind of firearms. From these pistols and revolvers, they took what they liked. I am sure some were given capture papers.
On a side note, the vets son told me that he had an old Luger his dad had brought home and could I clean it for him. I said "sure".....so he brought in a 98%, "S" code Krieghoff in a stunning brown holster! A sharp rig!
The 7.65mm handgun the Fuhrer was guarded with was probably a .32 PP or PPK!
Dean

 

[CBrown]

The Volkssturm procured its weapons from all sorts of sources, at least initially through the efforts of the Party, and to some extent from Wehrmacht stores, especially the special purpose Volkssturm battalions which were deployed out-of-home-area. For the most part, the VS was equipped with captured foreign weapons, especially Italian rifles. That said, in one account I have read, a VS soldier stated he was issued "a Nineteenth Century revolver with three rounds of amnmunition"; there is no indication as to revolver type. Brown M79 holsters apparently of WW2 vintage are known; they have no auxiliary ammunition pouch; two specimens known to me have no markings whatsoever but one has a GI's name and ASN marked on it. These are probably civilian market holsters.

 

[Guest]

There is a website in the U.S. advertising what they say are WW2 Reichsrevolver holsters but these are Black leather and smaller - for the M83 presumably ??

Download Attachment: 148.jpg
28.36KB

 

[r_t_darc]

That wouldn't be ' Checkpoint Charlie's ' website, would it?
If so, I'd take all descriptions with a grain (or two) of salt.

"Once burned. Twice shy..."

 

[CBrown]

I think they are postwar, not for any form of Reichsrevolver.

 

[Guest]

Yes it is " Checkpoint Charlie's ". I had no intention of buying one - just reporting what it say's