utm fk

dad’s luger | February 2020 g&a 65
The toggle shows almost no wear. some german tanks had firing
slits to allow the crew to shoot at enemy soldiers clambering
aboard, but Panzer crewmen had relatively little occasion for
shooting pistols in anger.
german arms makers obsessively serial-numbered everything,
including small luger parts. Finding a battlefield capture “numbers
matching” luger is an accomplishment for any collector. expectedly,
this one was missing the spare magazine.
straw colors on the trigger and takedown lever are usually a sign
of prewar manufacture when commercial standards were still in
effect. Otherwise, there is little wear anywhere on the specimen.
My father and Gordy were best friends in high school. Gordy
served in the U.S. Merchant Marines as a crewmember on an
anti-aircraft gun and was badly wounded in a kamikaze attack
in late 1944. He said in his letter, “As I remember things, I was
in the South Pacific in 1944 and I wrote your dad, who was in
Europe. I said, ‘If you can, I’d like for you to get me a Luger.’
To my great delight, when we both got home he came to
my parent’s house and handed me a package and said,
‘Here’s your Luger.’
“He related to me some of the incident in
which he acquired the pistol, and I realized that
there is a great deal of sentiment and meaning
attached to the gun. Knowing how much my
son is interested in certain aspects of my naval
experience, I imagine you probably have the same
interest in your dad’s service. If you wish, I would be
very pleased and honored to turn the Luger over to you so
you can have this memento which is really a tribute to your
dad.” I was quite overwhelmed and said “Yes,” of course.
I was able to sit down with my father and Gordy in the summer
of 2006, and talk to both about some of their war experiences
and their life after the war. This was a very special time that
I will never forget.
The Luger I received the Luger about a week after the letter
from Gordy. I wondered what I would see when I opened the
box, and I about fell over when I got it open. Inside the leather
holster was a pristine Luger. It looked like it was nearly brand
new. The only wear on the gun was some compression of the
checkering on the right grip from the holster brass closure button,
and some bluing wear at the muzzle.
The gun was all matching with a mismatched aluminumbottom
magazine. There was no spare magazine in the holster
magazine pouch. The Luger is a S/42 Mauser Orberndorf-1937
manufacture gun. It has a 4-inch barrel with a vivid straw color
on the trigger and extractor. It has deep and bright bluing, and
what I would consider commercial-quality fit and finish. The
barrel is very lightly frosted inside, but shiny.
The holster is very interesting, as it is not the standard German
period-issued hard-leather holster. I took the gun to a dealer
who specializes in Lugers and was told the holster was a “Swiss”
holster. The bottom of the holster had been cut off at some point,