Walther P38 (Pistole 38)

History

German follower Walter designed and developed the "Pistole 38" ("P38") semi-automatic pistol as a direct replacement for the famous Parabellum 1908 pistol - better known as the "Luger" or "P08" model. An excellent weapon of its day (it first appeared in the German Navy in 1904), the pistol was still essentially a turn-of-the-century design, lacking some of the new features found in interwar pistols. And not exactly designed for sensible and more cost-effective series production.

However, with the advent of the Nazi Party in the early 1930s and the rearmament of the German ground forces, a move was made to accompany the resurrected German soldiers with modern service pistols.

The Walther Group was founded in 1886 and developed many useful pistols on the eve of World War II (1939-1945). Developments often focus on hidden pocket designs, which are favored in various markets around the world.

Using this knowledge base, Walther set out to design a pistol that was designed from the ground up as a military pistol, built for harsh battlefield use, with a design and assembly method more suitable for mass production.

Walther's police design later evolved into the 1936 Walther AP ("Army Pistol"). This weapon has a locking breech and hidden hammer to prevent hooking. It is housed in a 9x19mm Parabellum (standard German pistol cartridge) and fired from a detachable 8-round magazine at the bottom of the pistol grip.

The use of short recoil and iron sights allows the weapon to be trained from a distance. The P38 is a Double Action ("DA") semi-automatic service pistol with a ribbed plastic grip and a cutout slide design - completely unique among many WWII service pistols, many of which mimic the M1911's famous line browning.

Although very few AP models were made, it was this design that was handed over to the German Army for testing. During the evaluation process, Walther offered this weapon to the civilian market as the Walther HP ("Heeres Pistole").

German troops then came back and asked for an external hammer, as the soldiers were happy to be able to quickly identify the status of the hammer. Additional scrutiny eventually led to the weapon's official adoption as the "Pistole 38" or "P38" in 1938.

1939 also received an order from the Swedish Army, who also wanted the P38 as their next standard service pistol.

World War II officially began when Germany committed to a total war by invading Poland in September 1939. Walther increased production of the P38 pistol, which led to the cancellation of the Swedish order and the disappearance of the civilian market form to meet the needs of the Wehrmacht. While Walther himself was primarily responsible for the manufacture of the weapon, Waffenfabrik Mauser AG and Spreewerke GmbH were also equipped with serial production equipment for the series.

Places like Fabrique Nationale in Belgium and Waffenwerke Brunn and Ceska Zbrojovka in Czechoslovakia also increased the number of P38s available as more foreign factories fell under the control of the German army. Production by the Bundeswehr continued until the end of the war in 1945.

In practice, the P38 became a valuable weapon for its operators. This is a robust semi-automatic unit that proves its excellent and reliable operation even in the harshest conditions. In fact, the soldiers praised his service on the Eastern Front, where the weather proved as enemy as the Soviet Union. It's designed for a weapon that's easy to clean or service on the battlefield, and close-range precision is well demonstrated in close-quarters combat.

The P38 was nearly as cherished by Allied soldiers as capturing a fully functional Luger pistol in battle - that's how respectful this weapon is.

With the end of the war in 1945, production of the P38 was allowed to continue, although none were intended for the German army. Operators include Austria, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, South Africa and Sweden, among others. In the years following the Cold War, as Germany remained a politically and geographically divided country among the victors of World War II, the West German army was allowed to re-adopt their P38 as a standard service pistol. Cal Walther Army re-production began in 1957, and from then until 1963 the P38 remained the standard service pistol - a key difference being the aluminum frame now used compared to the original wartime model's steel frame . Beginning in late 1963, the new post-war product gave rise to the name "Pistole 1" ("P1"), which brought further subtle changes to the design.

The P1 remained in service until its retirement in 2004, and was replaced by the modern Hecker & Koch USP ("Universal Self-Loading Pistol") as the "P8", which is described elsewhere on this site.

Some police and military continue to use the famous P38 series today. Production is about 1 million units.

Specification

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Changes