OT Luger on Guadacanal

[Dick Foster]

Watch a program today on History channel that showed a group of Marines showing off their war trophies supposedly following the battle with the Ichici regiment at Alligator creek. The marine in the middle is holding a luger pistol which was a real shock to me. It definitely was not a nambu. I was looking for 03s and was surprised to see the luger. Any theories on presents of a luger on Guadacanal????

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[Johnny Peppers]

The Luger could have been captured from the Dutch in the battle for the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch had purchased several thousand Lugers from DWM in Germany.

[edlmann]

Watch a program today on History channel that showed a group of Marines showing off their war trophies supposedly following the battle with the Ichici regiment at Alligator creek. The marine in the middle is holding a luger pistol which was a real shock to me. It definitely was not a nambu. I was looking for 03s and was surprised to see the luger. Any theories on presents of a luger on Guadacanal????

Could have been a personally owned weapon. Not sure where you'd get ammo, but it's a possibility.

[Johnny Peppers]

Japan has no history of private gun ownership, especially pistols. Prior to WWII virtually any type of weapon was illegal for the ordinary Japanese citizen to possess.

[JBS]

It is my understanding many Japanese officers had a dislike for their issue sidearms. Many purchased their own as an officer was allowed to do. Some very strange sidearm were found on dead officers.

Dutch Luger

[Bill H]

I saw that also.

It is entirely possible that the scene was not filmed there at all.

It is entirely common for shows like this to use stock film scenes with no regard to the accuracy of the caption.

[Mike in Wis.]

This article from back in 2000 clears some of the mystic Japanese Luger lore up... looks like what ones have been verified in Japanese service were captured weapons from the Dutch East Indies. I like the part about the two Colt SAA's with the Crest on them mentioned in the article.

http://www.gunboards.com/sites/banza...op_Fake_Lugers

[Arisaka99]

Japan has no history of private gun ownership, especially pistols. Prior to WWII virtually any type of weapon was illegal for the ordinary Japanese citizen to possess.

This was not "private ownership". Japanese Officers (government officials) were allowed to purchase their own firearms, this was prevalent in the 1920s and most are small caliber European commercial guns.

[Johnny Peppers]

An officer in the Japanese military purchasing his sidearm is a far cry from a Japanese civilian owning a firearm.

[Michael Petrov]

A few weeks ago I was watching the military channel about fighting in the Pacific . In one footage there was a Marine with a 1911 holster that clearly had a Luger sticking out of it.