WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Justin Riggir

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Overview

The Pistole P08 (commonly called the Luger) automatic pistol traces its ancestry back to Hugo Borchardt’s 1893 design.  In 1900, George Luger, with Borchardt, refined the gun and helped produce the famous pistol that now commonly bears his name.  A year later, the manufacturer, Deutsche Waffen and Munitions­fabrik (DWM), officially designated it the Parabellum and in 1902 upped the calibre from 7.65 mm (0.301 in) to 9 mm (0.354 in).

The original 9-mm (0.354-in) Pistole P08 was first adopted by the German army in 1908 (hence the “08” designation), and saw front-line service throughout World War I.

The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to stop producing P08s, although production restarted in 1923.  The P08 remained the principal sidearm of the German military throughout the inter-war period.  It was issued to all German armed forces and in the infantry found use as an officer’s sidearm, as well as with weapon crews, dispatch riders, signalers, and NCOs.

For all its popularity, the P08 was far from an ideal service pistol, having both poor sights and a complex trigger mechanism.  The toggle breech mechanism required precision machining (unsuitable for mass production), was open to the elements and the entry of dirt and grit, and demanded virtually perfect ammunition to function.  These drawbacks were somewhat compensated by the weapon’s superb potential accuracy and, considering its precision tolerances and open toggle breech,  remarkable reliability in the field.

Germany produced over four million P08s, and very similar pistols can still be found on the market today.

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Specifications