A "Captured" P-38 pistol.

[Adam Helmer]

My neighbor, Mike, keeps coming up with very interesting stuff. He was cleaning out his deceased grandfather's home and found a P-38 captured in January 1945 in the Battle of the Bulge by his grandad. The pistol is mentioned in the WWII vet's diary as being taken off a Volkssturm kid on January 30, 1945.

I like history and see a little bit of it here. The pistol is dated "1945" and was captured in January1945. Another mystery is the fact the frame serial number and the slide serial number are close, BUT do not match. I wonder if the guns were cleaned behind the German lines and in darkness, or in the press of battle, the wrong slide got put onto this pistol. Or maybe, later, some GIs reassembled their captured P-38s and got the slides mixed up. Perhaps we will never know.

The pistol is in new condition, but a bit rough on the exterior reflecting wartime conditions in the Reich. It shot well with WW factory Ball and factory 147 grain JHPs.

Adam

[Catfish]

Very interesting. I also like thing like that, and I know where there is a 1911 in excellant condition that was carried during WW 11 by a spy. They gave him a Tompson also which he imadeatily gave away. He said if he got into a shoot out with the Japs he would only need 1 round for himself. He has alot of good stories.

[Adam Helmer]

Catfish,


I did the math and the frame and slide numbers are 1771 digits apart. It seems, to me, more logical, the mixup was on the German side than on the expansive front of the Allies and a GI may have mixed up the parts.

Like I said, we may never know, but we can chat and wonder.

Adam

[Rabid Rich]

I remember reading some of WWII correspondent Ernie Pyles books many years ago. In one of those books/stories he wrote about a unit that gathered weapons and such from the battlefields. They would take the damaged weapons all apart putting the individual pieces in barrels, buckets whatever. Then after cleaning the parts they would reassmble the Garands, carbines, 1911's, etc. No time for matching up serial numbers etc.
I wonder If the Germans didn't do the same thing? Never heard for sure.
One more thing I remember about Ernies story. He was looking thru the battle damage rifles and mentioned some of the carvings in the stocks. Initials of course and other sentiments . One even had a picture of a Wife or sweetheart inlayed into the buttstock.
Pretty interesting and food for the imagination.
Also bolsters the respect for ALL our service men and women that give so much for us.
GOD Bless Them ALL!
Post Script: I think I will check out some book stores and get some of Ernie Pyles books. Great reading.

[Jack]

Rich, Ernie Pyle's books are a great read.
I believe he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book, Brave Men.
If you've not read that- get it.

[skeet]

Landed at Normandy o D day. He had a machine gun squad. After they got off the beach..he said when they were about out of ammo..they were instructed to fall back but burn the machine guns if pressed. He made a few trips back to the beach to get new guns. Said the Amorers had big pot sets up on the beach..They disassembled new guns and pickups from the fighting ..threw 'em in the pots and boiled the Stuff out of 'em..reassembled from what ever parts..checked headspace on the rifles and put 'em in racks to be reissued. He said he liked the water cooled machine guns the best but carrying the water was a pain....and they got punctured too easily. And the bbls on the air cooled were much easier to change. He fought for a long time over there..being assigned to the British commando teams from 1940 to 43(he could be a really scary dude) then in North Africa..with some of the allied commandos and then till the last of the Battle of the Bulge when he finally got shot up. He did know his stuff though. Took him to see Saving Private Ryan..think it shook him up a bit. Told me it was as close to real as any movie he had ever seen. He also said that he was in a bunch of guys that did some testing on the M-1 carbine. Said it was one of the most useless rifles he had ever shot. Course they had to pry the 03 Springfield that he was trained with out of his hands:D He had joined up in 1938 and had to lie to get in as they weren't taking anyone over the age of 30 then. Another interesteing thing he said was that the colonel who was the battalion?? medical officer was a Veterinarian. Not a joke.

[Gil Martin]

That P-38 could have been mismatched from birth or later in the barracks during cleaning. It is possible a U.S. G.I. disassembled it and possibly along with other P-38s and it got put back together with the wrong slide. Remember, U.S. military small arms do not have the matching numbers so commonly used in Europe. I worked with a guy who was a WWII vet and he told that in post war Germany, he saw a lot of G.I.s that were injured while playing with captured small arms. It got so bad that his company commander gathered up all the Lugers, Mauser Broomhandles and P-38s he could find and removed them from the company area. All the best...
Gil