Pocket Pistols: A Look at Historic German Firearms

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On 20 July 1944, Lieutenant Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg attempted to kill one of the most repugnant personalities in all of human history. Von Stauffenberg surreptitiously deposited a bomb-laden briefcase some two meters away from Adolf Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair near Rastenburg in East Prussia during a command briefing. After abandoning a kilo of plastic explosive underneath the briefing table, von Stauffenberg excused himself on a pretense. The bomb sported a ten-minute time pencil detonator.

Von Stauffenberg was a German aristocrat and military hero. Grievously injured in an Allied air attack in Tunisia in 1942, von Stauffenberg lost two fingers on his left hand, his left eye, and his right hand at the wrist. As a result of his wounds, von Stauffenberg was posted as a staff officer with the German Replacement Army in Berlin. Tradition holds that his sidearm was a Walther PPK in .32ACP, one of the few handguns that he could still operate despite his disabilities.

The bomb went off as planned. However, another officer had innocently moved it behind the heavy table leg to make room for something else. That big piece of oak shielded Hitler from much of the chaos. Four men died, but der Fuhrer escaped with ruptured eardrums and superficial wounds. Then life went all pear-shaped for von Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators.

Assuming his bomb would be successful, von Stauffenberg beat feet to Berlin to help organize the coup to depose Hitler. However, Hitler’s survival guaranteed von Stauffenberg’s demise. German troops moved to arrest the crippled war hero, and a vigorous shootout ensued. Von Stauffenberg did the best he could with his tiny little service automatic and one gimpy hand. However, he eventually caught a jacketed pistol bullet to the shoulder.

Von Stauffenberg was executed later that evening. 4,979 other Germans, many of whom had no reliable connection to the enterprise, were also murdered. While the plot was ultimately unsuccessful, Hitler did witlessly remove a whole pile of military officers who could have been pretty handy during the final defense of the Reich.

Most of the guns used by von Stauffenberg and his cronies in that epic gunfight were lyrically tiny, particularly by US standards. While American GIs were packing the .45ACP M1911A1--arguably the manliest combat sidearm in human history--the Germans often issued piddly little pocket pistols to their officers and pilots. This represents a fundamentally divergent attitude towards service handguns. 

Doctrine

Americans viewed pistols as serious last-ditch combat tools. These were guns with which a man was expected to fight. As a result, our handguns fired proper cartridges and were legendarily reliable. By contrast, many German service pistols were quite underpowered. Oftentimes these guns fired the anemic little .32ACP cartridge. There were even a few chambered in .25 ACP. 

Where American handguns were fighting implements, the German sort were often simply badges of rank or talismans. In fact, it seemed the higher the rank the smaller the handgun. Hitler was known to have carried a Walther PPK chambered in .25ACP in the waistband of his trousers. This specific weapon was lost in the final days of the war.

Specifics

The Germans’ 9mm pistols were both competitive and effective. 9mm ball ammo may not be the ideal choice for stopping a threat in a timely fashion. However, I have personally seen several thugs quite expeditiously killed by counterparts wielding 9mm pistols charged with cheap FMJ loads. Shot placement is everything.

The two primary German 9mm service pistols were the P08 Parabellum Luger and the Walther P38. The Luger was a World War 1 contrivance that was laborious to produce and a bit fragile under hard use. The single action trigger was also mushier than it should have been. However, the Luger was nonetheless a capable fighting pistol. Every American soldier in Europe wanted a Luger as a souvenir.

The Walther P38 was a state of the art design for its time. The gun’s single-action/double-action trigger inspired countless combat handguns in the decades that followed. The P38 was a user-friendly weapon and an effective close combat tool. 480,000 copies saw service during the war.

Arguably the two best 9mm pistols in German service during WW2 were nominally stolen. The Radom Vis wz. 35 was a Browning-inspired design that bore a passing resemblance to the 1911. The Vis incorporated a grip safety as well as a nice single-action trigger. 350,000 of these guns were made by slave labor in Poland for issue to Nazi troops.

Arguably the nicest German service handgun was the Belgian P35 Hi-Power. The Krauts called it the 9mm Pistole 640(b). Around 300,000 copies were made under occupation at Liege in Belgium. They included a 13-round double-column, single-feed magazine and a nice single-action trigger. The basic Hi-Power action went on to drive most of the world’s modern combat handguns. While those four 9mm guns were respectable tactical tools, we shall now delve into the wimpier stuff.

Walther PP/PPK

Walther launched their PP (Polizeipistole or “Police Pistol”) in 1929. Sporting an unlocked blowback action and a novel single-action/double-action trigger, the trim little PP was easy to carry and easy to shoot. The gun came in five different calibers, but the .32ACP was the most common. Two years later, Walther debuted an abbreviated version called the PPK (Polizeipistole Kriminal). Kriminal was a reference to the Kriminalamt crime investigation office. The PPK eventually became the definitive example. A lot of that was simply because it looked so blasted cool.

The standard .32ACP PPK carried 7+1 in its magazine and could indeed be operated one-handed in a pinch. The safety was a slide-mounted lever that safely dropped the hammer over a live round. The magazine release was on the left side under the right thumb for right-handed shooters as it should be. The slide locked to the rear on the last round fired. To recharge the gun, one would swap out magazines and then give the slide a little tug to the rear to free it to go forward over a live round.

Mauser HSc

The Mauser HSc came out in 1940 and competed directly with the PPK. I would assess the HSc as an incrementally better gun. HSc stood for Hahn Selbstspanner ("self-cocking hammer") Pistole. The design and engineering embedded within this gun were quite advanced.

The hammer was a curious rotating drum at the rear of the slide which was both effective and unobtrusive. There was a slide-mounted safety. The sharply curved trigger was exceptionally comfortable. 

The magazine release was on the butt, which is unfortunate, but the slide did lock back on the last round fired. Interestingly, to recharge the gun you removed the empty magazine and slammed a fresh one in straightaway. The slide subsequently dropped back into battery of its own accord. The HSc was arguably the most futuristic-looking firearm of World War 2.

Sauer 38H

The Sauer 38H was launched in 1938 by JP Sauer & Sohn. Chambered in .32ACP, the 38H also incorporated some remarkably advanced features. The 38H fired via a hidden internal hammer and included a tactile loaded chamber indicator.

The most striking aspect of the 38H design was the left-sided cocking/decocking thumb lever. This feature was later used in the SIG P226 and HK P9S, but the Sauer 38H was the first. Sepp Dietrich, famed commander of the 6th Waffen SS Panzer Army that led the German assault during the Battle of the Bulge, carried a 38H as his personal sidearm.

FN Model 1910/1922

These trim little concealed carry guns were used by the Wehrmacht, SS, and Gestapo. The 1910 and 1922 were essentially the same pistols, but the 1922 was a bit longer. The Germans called these captured M1922 pistols the Pistole 37(u).

Gavrilo Princip used an M1910 Browning to kill Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on a street corner in Sarajevo back in June of 1914. This murder set events in motion that eventually led to World War 1. There’s no debating the effectiveness of these weapons in determined hands.

Italian Options

There was a great deal of cross-pollination between the German and Italian militaries early in the war. The Beretta 38A 9mm submachine gun was prized by both Waffen SS troops and German Fallschirmjagers. Beretta pistols were not quite so coveted.

The Beretta M1934 was introduced in 1934 and fired the 9x17mm Corto or .380ACP cartridge. More than a million copies were produced. A prominent hooked magazine floorplate helped the operator remove sticky magazines. The single-action trigger was superb, and the gun fed from a 7-round magazine.

My wife’s grandfather fought as an infantry NCO in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. He came home with a .25ACP Beretta 418 he took from a captured Italian officer. This tiny little gun is small enough to get lost in the palm of your hand.

Ruminations

It is amazing that the guys who brought us the Tiger tank could have been satisfied with these pathetic little combat pistols. However, to the Germans, a handgun was primarily used to show how awesome you were or to cap some poor helpless slob in the back of the head at contact range. In the end, none of that mattered. The world righteously came together and gave the Axis the royal beatdown they deserved.

Special thanks to www.worldwarsupply.com for the cool replica gear used in this article.

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