{"id":149955,"date":"2022-04-17T13:30:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T17:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=149955"},"modified":"2022-04-17T13:30:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T16:59:19","slug":"the-walther-p1-from-war-baby-to-nato-surplus-sweetheart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/the-walther-p1-from-war-baby-to-nato-surplus-sweetheart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Walther P1: From War Baby to NATO Surplus Sweetheart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you want to experience a WW2 handgun without paying antique prices, the Walther P1 is a direct descendant of the iconic Nazi P38 and a lot cheaper to own. The Walther P1 is the aluminum-framed copy of the WWII Walther P38 pistol and has its own history. For 25 years these pistols served with the Bundeswehr and West German police. During the 1990s the Germans began phasing out the P1, fielding the P8 (a military version of the H&K USP), finally retiring the weapon altogether in 2004. The P1 is now readily available on the civilian market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everyone who has seen a WW2 movie thinks the Nazis all carried a Luger P08. While some of them did, their main sidearm was the P38. Lugers fought in the Great War and were the standard-issue sidearm for the German military from their adoption in 1909 until 1938. They were an innovative design in their day and brought us the standard 9×19 round (also called 9mm Luger).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The P38 is a full-size service pistol, it chambered the standard 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge and fed from an 8-round magazine. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Handguns are support weapons and in a wartime economy, cheap and effective beats pretty every time. Experience in the Great War had shown the Lugar to be complicated and expensive to manufacture. The toggle operating system did not tolerate hostile conditions well so Walther developed a more reliable and less expensive option, the Pistole 38 or P38. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CRsenal
CRsenal animation of Walther P38 firing. The P38 included many innovative features which would be copied by other designers for the next 50 years. If you have ever seen the locking block on a Beretta 92, this 1938 design will look very familiar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The P38 is a full-size service pistol chambered with the standard 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge firing from an 8-round magazine. One of the first double-action handguns, it allowed Soldiers to safely carry the P38 with a round chambered and the hammer down, needing only to draw and squeeze the long double-action trigger pull to fire (without manipulating a manual safety). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military production began in 1939 with Walther. The demand for the P38 was so high, that Mauser and Spreewerk also received contracts producing over one million P38s during the war. P38s went on to see combat in every theater of war and field use in harsh conditions proved it to be a magnificent design. The only reason the Germans issued so many other handguns was that there were never enough P38s available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This German surplus holster is basically a copy of the WW2 leather P38 holster in nylon. The plastic hardware and velcro make it more user-friendly. There is a pocket to hold you one spare magazine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As WW2 ended, the Cold War began and the P38 received a new lease on life. The new German army (Bundeswehr) wanted the gun they knew, Walther updated the design, replacing the steel frame with a lightweight aluminum alloy unit (during the war, aluminum was prioritized to the Luftwaffe for aircraft). In 1955, the initial production run of new pistols was marked \u201cP38\u201d, The design was de-Nazified and adopted in 1957 as the Pistole 1. This model served not only the various branches of the Bundeswehr but also the Austrian Army, for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Under the flap, there is an extra snap. It is not designed for a quick draw. If you think you are going to need your pistol, better get it out and have it in your hand. The spare magazine is in a tight pocket closed with velcro. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pistole
Pistole Walther P1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The original Walther factory was in the Soviet occupation zone. What was not stolen was destroyed by the Russians. The Manurhin company in France made the P1 gun for several years under contract until Walther built a new factory in Ulm\/Donau. Walther built the P1 for the West German military and police for more than 25 years. They are marked \u2018P-1\u2019 and have a four-digit production date on their frame. The date is simple to figure out, my gun is marked 04\/79, it was made in April of 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P1 and the P38<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The P1 is different than the P38. The design is almost exactly the same, but it isn’t the same gun. The P1 frame is aluminum, the P38 is steel-framed. For all intents and purposes, both guns feel and shoot the same. In 1975, the aluminum frame was reinforced with a hex bolt above the trigger guard, and a thicker, stronger slide was added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was cruising my local gun store and saw a camo holster, a German flecktarn holster. Then I saw the gun. A very good condition P1 with all the family charm of its WW2 relatives. For less than a used Glock, I got to find out why the Germans kept this gun for so many years. I was not disappointed and I learned a great deal about where modern handgun features originated. (Spoiler Alert: Everybody but Browning stole something from this gun. Looking at you Beretta, SIG and Glock.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The front sight post with a white dot and the rear white stripe makes a very clear sight picture. You can see the loaded chamber indicator under the rear sight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The P1 and the P38 are true double-action \/ single-action guns. It was designed to be carried with the chamber loaded and the hammer de-cocked using the lever. With the safety off, a double-action pull of the trigger will cock and then fire the gun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Rotate the take-down lever forward and the slide and barrel come right off. Very simple and toolless disassembly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Walther P1 Specifications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n