Walther

Walther P38 9mm Authentic WWII Cigarette Gun with U.S. ENGER-KRESS 1944 leather holster. Comes with an extra magazine

SCARCE Late World War II WALTHER "ac/45" Code P.38 “CIGARETTE” Pistol C&R AMERICAN CAPTURE “C” Block Pistol

Description:
SCARCE Late World War II WALTHER "ac/45" Code P.38 “CIGARETTE” Pistol C&R

AMERICAN CAPTURE “C” Block Pistol

Here we present a C&R Third Reich German Walther “ac/45” code P.38 “C” Block “Cigarette” Pistol, made in 1945 in Zella-Mehlis, Germany. Late in the war in April of 1945, Walther was assembling “B” block guns when they were captured by the 90th armored division. Many of these “Cigarette” pistols were assembled for the GIs by plant employees out of available parts bins in trade for “necessities”. That is the reason virtually none of these have matching numbers, as shown by this example. This example does have the “Eagle/359” German acceptance markings, making this example extremely rare.

The P.38 was designed by Walther to replace the Luger P.08 as the standard service weapon for the Third Reich’s Wehrmacht. The Luger was a ground-breaking design, but quite expensive to produce. The P.38 was the first locking breech pistol to feature the double/single action firing mechanism with a decocking safety lever, a prelude to many modern pistols to come. It also features a loaded chamber indicator that is both visible and tactile, extending out of the top rear of the slide, just above the hammer. The falling block locking mechanism was also carried into future pistol designs. Many of these design features are found in the Beretta 92 or U.S. M9 pistols.

The Wehrmacht was the primary buyer of these pistols, but the German police also used about 6,800 P.38s. The left side of the slide is marked “P.38” and “ac/45”, the code for Walther and the year of manufacture. This example bears the acceptance mark “Eagle/359”.
The overall condition is fine. Original finish. The action is excellent. The bore is sharp and shiny bright. The grips are fine.

This firearm is classified as a Curio & Relic.

Barrel is 5 inches.

Caliber: 9x19mm Parabellum (Luger)

Overall condition as seen in photos.

The P38 was the first locked-breech pistol to use a double-action/single-action DA/SA trigger (the earlier double-action PPK was an unlocked blowback design, but the more powerful 9x19 Parabellum round used in the P38 mandated a locked breech design). The shooter could chamber a round, use the safety-decocking lever to safely lower the hammer without firing the round, and carry the weapon with a round chambered. The lever can stay on "safe", or if returned to "fire", the weapon remains safely "ready" with a long, double-action trigger pull for the first shot. Pulling the trigger cocks the hammer before firing the first shot with double-action operation. The firing mechanism extracts and ejects the first spent round, cocks the hammer, and chambers a fresh round for single-action operation with each subsequent shot; all features found in many modern day handguns. Besides a DA/SA trigger design similar to that of the earlier Walther PPKs the P38 features a visible and tactile loaded chamber indicator in the form of a metal rod that protrudes from the rear of the slide when a round is chambered.