walther p.38 - the first military double-action pistol

8/11/2019 Walther P.38 - The First Military Double-Action Pistol

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Walther P.38 The First Military Double-Action PistolThe classic Walther P.38 is the first double-action pistol that left its mark on WWII history.

ByGlenn Gilbert| October 15th 2013, 9:46 PM

Fritz Walther, owner and lead designer for

Walther firearms, created a number of semi-

automatic pistols known for their elegant lines,compact size, reliable operation and revolutionary

design. In the dense woods and rugged hills of

Thuringen, at the factory founded by his father,

Carl Walther, Fritz created the legendary PPseries of pistols. They were the first successful

semi-automatics with double-action triggers.

Shortly after the emergence of his .32 ACP and

.380 ACP PP, the German army advised Waltherthat it had begun searching for a new standard 9x19mm Luger service pistol to replace its P.08

Parabellum (better known as simply the Luger), which had an excellent design but required

substantial hand-fitting and machining.

Seeing an opportunity, Fritz Walther quickly developed a series of designs that ultimately lead tothe worlds first double-action, semi-automatic military sidearm (and Walthers first pistol in

9mm Luger), the Walther P.38. On first look, the Walther P.38 is a clear example of a

manufacturer understanding its customer: the Walther P.38 had a simple, rugged design that

could easily be mass-produced. In fact, well over one million Walther P.38s were made between1938 and 1945. It was an unqualified success, performing well and remaining in service with the

German military and policeand worldwidefor over 50 years.

Old With NewThe Walther P.38 is an interesting mix of the old and new or, at least, what was old and new in

1938. It uses a proven short-recoil system of operation. The barrel and slide recoil together overa short distance and remain locked together at the highest pressure point; after the barrel moves

rearward about 0.25 inches, the plunger at the barrel assemblys rear pushes the locking block

beneath the barrel assembly and out of its horizontal locking recesses in the forged steel slide. Asthe locking block falls into a corresponding recess in the frame, it halts the rearward movement

of the barrel assembly. The slide, however, continues its rearward travel, guided by rails milled

into the forged steel frame. An external claw extractor on the left side of the slide and a pivoting

blade ejector pinned to the right side of the frame extract and eject the spent case. A detachablebox magazine housed in the grip frame feeds a fresh round into the chamber via a feed ramp

milled into the slide. After the slide cocks the Walther P.38s external hammer, a pair of

horizontally opposed recoil springs nested beneath the guide rails drive the slide and barrelassemblies back into battery.

The pivoting locking block is one reason the Walther P.38 is so rugged and reliable. Unlike most

recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistols that use a titling barrel that drops out of battery, the
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Walther P.38s barrel travel is strictly linear. In addition, its slide is almost skeletonized forward

of the breech face, allowing a great deal of space for case travel during ejection.

A stamped-steel sliding magazine release is located on the heel of the frame, at the rear of the

magazine well. The magazine is a single-column design that holds eight rounds. Index holes cut

in the side of the stamped-steel magazine body show the number of loaded rounds remaining. Onthe left side of the frame, there is a slide-stop lever at the trigger wells top-rear. It is partially

fenced by an abbreviated thumb shelf molded into the grip panel. The slide stop is also

automatically engaged by a rising magazine follower, so the slide automatically locks open afterthe last round is fired.

A pivoting safety lever is mounted to the slide, just below the rear sight. Sweeping the safetylever downward exposes a white S (for sicher, German for safe) and engages the safety.

Pushing upward on the lever reveals a red F (for feuer, German for fire) and, of course,

readies the gun to fire. When the hammer is cocked and the safety lever is rotated from the fire

position to the safe position, it falls on a locked firing pinthe safety lever also functions as ahammer release, or decocker. Returning the safety lever to the F position readies the trigger for

double-action firing. At the top of the hammer well is a novel feature for a WWII-era handgun, aloaded cartridge indicator: A pin projects from the top-rear of the slide when there is a round inthe chamber; the pin is relatively small and unobtrusive but large enough to be seen or felt in the

dark.

Double-Action DesignAs mentioned, what separated the Walther P.38 from its contemporaries was its double-action

trigger (borrowed from the Walther PP), which enabled safe carry of the pistol with the hammerdown on a loaded chamberthere was no need to thumb-cock the hammer or rack the slide to

ready the pistol for firing. The action of pulling the trigger cocks the hammer and releases it. In

many respects, it is like a double-action revolver, except the action of the Walther P.38s slide

cocks the hammer after each shot, so follow-up shots are fired single-action and require shorter,lighter trigger pulls. Also drawn from the Walther PP is the Walther P.38s frame, which lacks a

backstrap. This saved on raw materials, machining time and, most importantly, weight. The

backstrap is formed by a pair of grips that wrapped around the frame in a clamshell fashion,which helps protect the mainspring, trigger bar and other internal components. While Walthers

original design called for walnut grips, the Walther P.38 as adopted by the German army came

with Bakelite grips. These grips are either black or brown and come with a series of thinhorizontal grooves that have a ribbed appearance. The Walther P.38s sights are excellent: The

rear sight is a broad blade with a deep U-notch, while the front is a tall postboth are drift-

adjustable and easy to acquire.

Walthers original name for its double-action 9mm Luger pistol was the HP (for heerespistole,German for army pistol). By 1938, Walther HP production was underway and a small numberwere available for commercial salethey had been listed in Stoegers catalog prior to the U.S.s

entering WWII. When the German army adopted the pistol later that same year, there were very

few differences between the commercial HP and the military Walther P.38, perhaps the only

significant one being the extractor. The HP had an internal extractor. However, the German armyrequested an external extractor, believing it would be more reliable. Walther readily complied.


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On April 1, 1939, the German army ordered a trial production run of 800 guns. Many of these

trial pistols were built from a mix of HP- and Walther P.38-marked components. Some parts

even had commercialrather than militaryproofmarks. This was followed by what collectorsconsider the first true-production Walther P.38s: The Zero Series. These guns had serial

numbers with a 0 prefix and retained the commercial Walther banner on the slide. Between

April 1939 and March 1940, Walther produced just 13,000 Zero Series guns.

Pleased with the performance of these first two runs, in April 1940 the German army awarded

Walther a contract for over 400,000 Walther P.38s. Though production ramped up slowly,Walther was able to achieve its goal of 10,000 Walther P.38s per month in April 1941. By the

time the Soviets overran the factory in Spring 1945, Walther had built a total of approximately

580,000.

MarkingsNote that, after the completion of the Zero Series, Walther was brought in line with the German

militarys numeric factory coding system, and the code 480 was stamped into the slide in lieuof the Walther logo. Later that same year, the Germans switched to a code system built around

lettersWalther was assigned the ac cypher. Frequent changes in marking requirementsresulted in many variations among these early guns: some Walther P.38s carried just the 480,some carried the 480 plus a 40 (for the year of production) and some carried the 480, the

ac and the 40 notations. But from late-1940 to wars end in May 1945, the slides of Walther-

made Walther P.38 pistols were rather consistently stamped with both the ac code and the lasttwo digits of the year they were produced. The only significant change occurred in the middle of

1943, when Walther switched from what collectors call a two-line series with the factory code

stamped above the two-digit date, to a single-line arrangement with the letter code and the two-

digit date stamped side by side on the same horizontal plane. The single line arrangement of thefactory code and the two-digit production year remained Walthers standard until the end of

WWII.

Enter Mauser and SpreewerkeAlthough Walther proved to be an energetic and efficient manufacturer, it hadnt the resources to

meet the German militarys enormous needs. So, Walther searched for manufacturers capable ofefficiently producing the Walther P.38. Mauser was a logical choice, given its long history of

producing quality semi-automatic pistols and the fact it was Germanys largest small-arms

manufacturer. In June 1940, the German army ordered Mauser to cease producing the P.08 Lugerand begin producing the Walther P.38. Leadership at the Mauser plant was not in favor of this,

for reasons of both practicality and pride: On the one hand, it was difficult to switch horses

midstream; and on the other, Mauser knew how to make good Lugers and didnt want to build a

gun it didnt design. The German Army ultimately and reluctantly yielded to practicality,

allowing Mauser to continue producing the P.08 Luger until 1942. By the end of that same year,Mauser swallowed its pride and delivered its first 700 Walther P.38 pistols.

In the last 2.5 years of the war, Mauser produced approximately 300,000 Walther P.38s,

assigning each one the factory code byf and, like Walther, stamping the last twodigits of the

production year into the slide. To my knowledge, Mauser never strayed from a stacked two-linearrangement of its three-letter code and production date. In the last three months of the war,

however, Mausers code was switched to svw. Mauser-produced Walther P.38s built in 1945


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may be marked byf 45 or svw 45. It is likely that the change to svw occurred very early in

1945Walther P.38s marked byf 45 are rather scarce.

The third and last manufacturer to be tapped was Spreewerke, located in Berlin-Spandau.

Spreewerke specialized in producing light and medium artillery pieces, but for reasons that

remain a mystery, it was ordered to start producing Walther P.38s. Spreewerkes Walther P.38sare noticeably rougher in finish than Walther- or Mauser-built pistols. Most have deep, circular

cutting marks on the slide, frame and barrel. (Looking at a Spreewerke Walther P.38, it is easy to

imagine a heavy milling machine hogging off big strands of steel from its forging.) Spreewerkebegan tooling up for Walther P.38 production in September 1941 but did not deliver its first test

batch of 50 pistols until June 1942, all of which were rejected. But by August 1942, Spreewerke

had turned things around: It delivered a larger test run of 300 pistols that made the grade.Ultimately, Spreewerke produced roughly 285,000 Walther P.38s by the end of WWII.

Spreewerke Walther P.38s may not the prettiest, but they sure can dance. Spreewerke markings

are relatively consistent: All of the frames carry its assigned code cyq, but in contrast to

Walther and Mauser, Spreewerke never adopted the habit of stamping the production date on theslidethe reason why has never been explained.

Dozens of other makers were assigned to make Walther P.38 parts such as magazines and grips,but they are too numerous to list. One that bears special mention, however, is Fabrique Nationale

d Armes (FN) of Belgium, which made thousands of Walther P.38 slide assemblies under

German occupation. These slides can make things confusing for collectors. They are usuallystamped with a two-line manufacturers code for Walther, usually an ac 43 or ac 44, despite

the fact that they were also supplied to Spreewerke and Mauser. The slides will, however, carry

the Waffenamt numbers of the factory that assembled them. That would be 88for Spreewerke,

359 for Walther and 135 for Mauser.

All told, 1.2 million were made before wars end, which is certainly an impressive total, but the

Walther P.38 was never enough to completely replace the P.08 Luger. Both pistols weredesignated first-line equipment and served side by side throughout WWII. Postwar, things came

full circle: Mauser wound up in the French zone of occupation, and as a result, several thousand

Walther P.38s were made for the French military from leftover parts. Most of them have all ofthe standard late-war Mauser markings, such as the svw 45 or svw 46 makers code and the

eagle 135 proofmark, but with the addition of a five-pointed star on the slide, which represents

a French nitro-proof.

Russian CaptureThe Red Army captured tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Walther P.38s

during WWII. Naturally, the Soviets gathered them up and put them away for storage. During

this process, they were blued, sometimes crudely. (Collectors sometimes refer to them as dippedguns.) Unlike K98s, however, the Soviets generally kept the Walther P.38 slides, frames andbarrels together, so their major components generally match. Century Arms currently has a

number of Mauser- and Spreewerke-produced examples in stock.

They sent me one of their Spreewerke-made examplesI was very impressed. It is an all-

matching example stamped cy8. It has been re-blued, and the bluing was evenly and

attractively appliedI would go so far as to say it showed a measure of skill and care. At the


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range, the Walther P.38 proved to have a good trigger pull. There was just with a little take-up at

the start and a bit of creep just before the break but no stacking. Most importantly, it was very

consistent. The single-action pull was stellar and short with a crisp let-off. The sights were welladjusted. My groups were dead on windage-wise, but about 4 inches high at 15 yards. This

Walther P.38 was well balanced and had an ergonomically shaped grip, so it was a lot of fun to

shoot. Given its 9mm Luger chambering and all-steel construction, recoil was not an issue. TheseRussian-capture Walther P.38s have been on the market for over a decade, and we are starting tosee the bottom of the well. So, if you are interested in buying one, the time is now.

The Walther P.38 is a unique piece of history. It was Walthers first pistol in 9mm Luger and the

first double-action, semi-auto pistol adopted for military service. And while the Walther P.38

lacks the allure of its predecessor, the P.08 Luger, it has a sinister elegance all its own. It is aproven performer, having remained in service with the German military and police for more then

50 years, and an important piece of firearms history. Contact Century international Arms for

more information at centuryarms.com; 800-527-1252.

walther p.38 - the first military double-action pistol

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