Spreewerk ~ P.38 ~ 9mm

Very good condition, some finish wear, small nicks and scratches. The P.38 is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol developed by Carl Walther GmbH as the service pistol of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of World War II. It was intended to replace the comparatively complex and expensive to produce Luger P08. Moving the production lines to the easier mass producible P.38 once World War II started took longer than expected, leading to the Luger remaining in production until September 1942, and pre-existing pistols remained in service until the end of the war The P38 concept was accepted by the German military in 1938 but production of prototype pistols did not begin until late 1939. Manufacturing began at a plant in Zella-Mehlis and three series of "Test" pistols, designated by a "0" prefix to the serial number were produced. The third series pistols satisfactorily solved the previous problems for the German Army and mass production began in mid-1940, using the military production identification code "480".