Artillery Luger

[Johnny Peppers]

As to the matching magazines, the LP.08 actually had three matching magazines. In addition to the magazine in the pistol, it came with a magazine pocket that had two spare magazines. The spare magazine always had a + stamp on the bottom under the serial number to indicate the spare magazine, and both spares had the plus sign.

[Patrick Chadwick]

are the 1915's more rare than other years?

Not as far as I can tell. Rather the reverse. In "Die Pistole 08" by Joachim Görtz, P.133 has a table showing that 130,000 LP08 were produced between 01. August 1914 and 30. September 1915, 104,000 of those being in the first 9 months of 1915. On P.136 figures are quoted showing 222,645 LP08 from August 1914 to October 1918. So it seems that 1915 must in fact have been the year of maximum production for the "Lange Pistole 08".

[Johnny Peppers]

Best check your information. The figures you are giving were estimated forecast production by the Prussian Ministry of War dated October of 1914. Actual production didn't even come close.

The DWM 1914 dated LP.08 does not even go into the letter (a) suffix block, with the highest known number being 1612 (ns). The DWM 1915 only goes into the (a) suffix block.

Erfurt did produce approximately 23,000 LP.08's in 1914, their only year of manufacture. 1915 DWM LP.08 production is estimated at 15,000.

[Patrick Chadwick]

The figures you are giving were estimated forecast production by the Prussian Ministry of War dated October of 1914.

I checked, and you are right about that. Where did you get the figures for actual production?

[Johnny Peppers]

There are no actual production figures, but for years collectors have gathered serial numbers from existing pistols and this is the basis for the estimated production we have today. This is constantly being improved as more serial numbers are added. Beginning in 1912 and continuing through 1918, DWM started the serial numbers of P.08 and LP.08 over at the beginning of each year. By using reported serial numbers, a good estimate of total production for a given year can be determined.

There is not total agreement as to whether P.08 and LP.08 production was serial numbered in the same or separate ranges for 1914 and 1915. In Jan Still's Imperial Lugers which came out in 1991, he estimated 1914 DWM LP.08 production at 5000 pistols. In his Central Powers Pistols which came out in 2007, he estimated production between 750 and 1500 pistols. As noted earlier, the highest documented 1914 dated DWM LP.08 is number 1612 (ns). 1914 dated DWM P.08 serial number 97 (ns) is reported in his Imperial Lugers.