Walther P38 (Pistole 38)
Designed for ease of production, the Walther P38 pistol was accepted to replace the P 08 series of German handgun.
By Staff Writer
The Walther P38 (Pistole 38) handgun was designed as a replacement for the well received P 08. The design of the newer P38 was to offer up a production-friendly alternative to the P 08 but still retain many of the key components that made the original such a success. As such, many of the features including the safety and hand cocked trigger function were retained in the new P38 design.
With Germany's military expansion under review and consolidated for maximum efficiency, it was deemed in 1933 that a new, equally effective yet easier to produce alternative to the P 08 be developed. With Walther Waffenfabrik earning the contract for the new handgun, based on their work on the 1908 automatic model, the P38 was born. After many years of trials, the P38 was finally accepted in 1940.
The Walther P38 series was fielded to a large part of the German armed forces, so much so that weapon production had to be expanded beyond Walther's production facilities. Just as robust and reliable as the weapon that preceded it, the P38 was another of the prized "souvenirs" to Allied soldiers lucky enough to confiscate one. The weapon held almost as much respect as the original German P 08 (commonly referred to as simply the "Luger").
Easy to use and equally easy to break down for field stripping, the P38 proved to be a follow-up success. With the end of the war, production of the P38 stopped only to be resumed once again in 1957 by Walther, fielded once again by the Bundeswehr as the official standardized sidearm. As of this writing, the P38 is still in production.
Among Carl Walther Waffenfabrik, others have been pressed into service producing the Walther P38 pistol - some factories due to Nazi occupation of their lands.
These Walther P38 pistol producers included:
Waffenfabrik Mauser AG (Oberndorf, Germany)
Spreewerke GmbH (Berlin, Germany)
Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guere (Belgium)
Waffenwerke Brunn (Czechoslovakia)
Ceska Zbrojovka (Czechoslovakia)
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Last Updated: 1/15/2009
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