My Pistole 640(b) returned to me after 46 years
My first post so I thought I would talk about my first Milsurp acquisition, a Pistole 640(b) which i am sure many of you already know is a FN HiPower made for the German Army.
I was a helicopter crew chief in Vietnam and my avatar depicts an artist rendition of my aircraft. I stayed in VN for 32 months and during that whole peroid, I carried this pistol:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...ght_side-1.jpg
The serial number reveals that it was made in Fabrique National plant in the summer of 1943 while under control of the German Wehrmacht and it has the appropriate markings. It was probably brought home to America by a returning GI and then years later, carried to Vietnam by an American soldier as a personal weapon. At some point, someone had applied "bumper chrome" to the pistol as opposed to a hard chrome application.
I had traded for the pistol early on in my tour and carried it on every flight mission/sortie that I flew which totaled up to more than 3500 combat flight hours. In September, 1968 I was notified that my fifth request for an extended six month tour had been denied and I was going home the next day. I did not have time to go to the local Army Provost Martial's office to get an export form so I passed it on to another crew chief in my platoon. I very much regretted losing it after all of the adventures we had shared but I didn't have any choice.
Forty-six years later, I received a phone call from that fellow crew chief. He had been looking for me for several years and had finally tracked me down. He offered to return the HiPower to me which i jumped at. A couple of days later, my FFL dealer had received it and the picture above is how it looked the day i got it back. The years hadn't been kind to it and the 'bumper chrome' was heavily pitted. I asked ZDave Williams, the chief gun smith at Springfield Armory if he could restored the finish and he did a great job. Here it is today as it looks along with the M3 holster that i carried it in:
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...gripsJPG-1.jpg
